By Linus Aleke
The Nigerian Navy (NN), on Sunday said, it has sustained presence of her capital ships at sea as well as directed operations bases to enhance efforts to dominate their Areas of Operations.
This, the Service said, is part of its overt and covert operational mechanism and strategy to curtail the recent spike in piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).
Director of Naval Information, Commodore Adedotun Olukayode Ayo-Vaughan, in a statement said the spate of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) within the last 10 years reduced to an all time low in 2022.
He noted that while concerted efforts are being made to reduce piracy within the GoG to its lowest minimum, 2 unfortunate incidences were recorded within the GoG in the last 3 weeks.
The Spokesman of Nigerian Navy, disclosed that the first incident which involved the hijack of Motor Tanker (MT) MONJASA REFORMER occurred on 25 March 2023 at a location144 nautical mile (nm) West-SouthWest (WSW) of Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo.
“It was later discovered that the pirates abducted 6 crew members from the vessel. The second incident involved the hijack of MT SUCCESS-9 about 306 nm SW of Abidjan Fairway Buoy (FWB), Cote d’Ivoire on 10 April 2023,” Commodore Ayo-Vaughan narrated.
The statement added that the NN vectored Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) GONGOLA to rendezvous MT MONJASA REFORMER in company of NNS KANO and a French Warship to escort the vessel to Lome, Togo.
The NN, Ayo-Vaughan said, has equally continued to employ her surveillance infrastructure to monitor shipping activities within the nation’s maritime environment and will continue to exploit intelligence to track activities of criminals in order to maintain sanctity of the Nigerian Maritime Environment (NME).
To this end, the NN enjoins all seafarers to continue to carry out their legitimate businesses without fear.
Noting that no incident of piracy has occurred within Nigerian Maritime Environment (NME), and the area is safe for maritime and economic activities, Ayo-Vaughan said the NN would continue to sustain credible presence to deter any form of criminality.
In securing the NME and GoG in general, the Naval Spokesperson concluded that the NN appreciates the efforts of international partners under the Coordinated Maritime Presence arrangement as well as the support of other maritime stakeholders that play other roles in the collective security of the GoG.
