With the spate of illegal entry of vessels into Nigeria’s territorial waters becoming more alarming, a maritime security expert, Mr Leke Oyewole has urged the largest black nation in Africa to geo-fence her maritime borders and corridors.
Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, Oyewole explained that it is a disgrace that vessels still enter into Nigeria’s territorial waters unannounced or unnoticed. According to him, “I am sure that it was a retrospective investigation that NIMASA did to find out that the vessel had been in Nigeria’s territorial waters for ten days unannounced.
“The world has advanced in terms of technology. Nigeria can now geo-fence her maritime borders and corridors and know immediately a vessel enters into our maritime domain, even if the vessel switches off its Automatic Identification System (AIS).
“The satellite technology to detect vessels once they enter a country’s territorial waters is in the market. The technology is a combination of Radio Frequency Analytics. Radio Frequency Analytics track a vessel’s AIS, radar and walkey-talkey onboard. The technology tracks anything that emits radio frequency on the ship. It is a satellite technology and Nigeria needs it so badly to checkmate illegal entry into our waters.
“Fish trawler owners had complained about illegal poaching of Nigeria’s waters by foreign ships, mostly from Asian countries. For wet cargoes, many of these super tankers come into our waters to load stolen crude oil. This is the reason a vessel would come into our waters and not declare its arrival.
“A vessel coming to Nigeria is supposed to declare well in advance of her visit, this is a standard rule. Even when the vessel has a week or days to arrive Nigerian waters, she must continue to declare her presence every day. It is only when vessels have ulterior motives that they don’t declare and they switch off their AIS. However, if Nigeria has the latest technology; such vessels will be detected and arrested for turning off their AIS. It is a crime in saner climes for vessels to turn off their AIS.
“Even if you approach the coast of the United States of America (USA) with a fishing boat, they will see you because they do satellite imagery of their territorial waters with very high resolution.
“These incidents should be taken by the Nigeria Navy and NIMASA as an alert to get necessary technology to secure Nigeria’s maritime domain. In saner climes, vessels that switch off their AIS and enters a country’s territorial waters illegally faces heavy penalties. Nigeria should emulate this to serve as a deterrent to errant vessels.”
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