Maritime insecurity: NIMASA reveals suspected pirate working with Shell

The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, has set a one year target to return Nigeria back to the exclusive White List of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). This is even as the NIMASA DG revealed that he currently has information on a suspected pirate who works with Shell.

The White List is a list of countries assessed by the International Maritime Organisation as properly implementing the STCW-95 (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) convention.

Speaking with maritime journalists at the weekend, Dr Bashir Jamoh, said that hopefully, before the end of 2021, Nigeria should be back on the White List of the IMO. According to the NIMASA DG, “There are two Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that we have set for ourselves, Firstly, Nigeria has to be back on the White List of the IMO. This is a target that I have set for myself in my four years as DG NIMASA. Hopefully, by the end of next year, I will like to see Nigeria back on the IMO White List. This is our number one target in NIMASA.

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“Our second target has to do with the IMO Category C seat. We can only be relevant in the committee of maritime nations if we have seat in the IMO Council. By November next year, Nigeria has to be back on the IMO Category C seat.

“Nigeria has given me four years to actualise these things, but I have set for myself November next year to ensure these things are actualised.”

On the recently arrested maritime pirates, the NIMASA DG stated that by next week, the arrested pirates will be arraigned. In his words, “This is a test case for the workability of the Anti-Piracy law. The international community is currently focused on us to see what we will do with the arrested pirates, whether we will let them go scot-free. This is the concern of the international community now, and we will make sure we don’t disappoint.

“Recently in January this year, one of our informants showed me a picture of a suspected well-known pirate who currently works with Shell. He told me that if we can arrest the suspected pirate, we will get much information from him regarding maritime insecurity.

“Even last week, a naval officer gave me the name of a person that ought to be arrested. That if we arrest that person, we will get a lot of information and intelligence on maritime insecurity in our waters from him. What we are doing now is investing so much on intelligence gathering. It was through intelligence gathering that we were able to arrest the maritime pirates that were paraded recently.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE