By Obiabin Onukwugha
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, has said that the agency’s collaboration with the Nigerian Navy has played a key role in the achievements of his administration, especially in terms of maritime security in the Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea.
He said the Nigerian model for combating maritime crime is now being adopted by other countries.
According to Jamoh, the change in narratives about security in Nigerian waters from the era of over 26 Piracy incidents, negative media exposure, to no single piracy incident for almost two years now, is a direct product of effective collaboration of both agencies.
Jamoh spoke when he received the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Mustapha Hasssan and a delegation of senior naval officers in Lagos, last Wednesday.
Related Posts
He also reiterated the agency’s resolve to ensure Nigerians enjoy the benefits accruable from the Marine and blue economy as envisaged by President Bola Tinibu.
“Collaboration with the Nigerian Navy is largely responsible for the confidence of stakeholders in the current management of the agency. I was in Brazil last week, the South Americans and even our neighbors like Ghana are eager to learn how we arrived at this MARAD-NAVY collaboration yielding successes.
“Just imagine that the negative media exposure in 2019-2020 about prevalent piracy and criminal activities in Nigerian waters had continued, you can only imagine where Nigeria would have been by now. I am glad we sought and got collaboration with the navy,” he stated.
Also speaking, yhe Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) West, Rear Admiral Mustapha Hassan, highlighted the need to sustain information sharing between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy.
He also requested NIMASA to support ‘Operation Water Guard’ to combat smuggling around the Badagry channel and commended the agency for the support to the Western Naval Command.
