The acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, warned that the activities of criminals on Nigeria’s maritime environment are a threat to both national economy and security.
Osinbajo spoke at the National Defence College (NDC), Abuja, during the launch of government’s document on; “Harmonized Standard Operating Procedures on Arrest, Detention and Prosecution of Vessels and Persons in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment 2016.”
He said the seas has great importance for trade and movement of goods and services, noting that the threat on Maritime security and sabotage of national maritime infrastructure, crude oil theft, illegal oil bunkering, piracy, armed robbery at sea, and environmental degradation has to be treated as an existential threat.
Osinbajo however said, the Harmonized Standard Operating Procedure (HSOP) for government maritime stakeholders aims to address the consequences, losses in commerce, and the degradation of our waters may have on our economy.
He noted that, although the Nigerian Navy has been robust in its activities to check maritime crimes, he praised the HSOP as most enduring, especially captured within the ambit of law, noting that effective enforcement of law and order, is clearly the most challenging issue in governance today.
He said the HSOP is drawn in the spirit of African Integrated Maritime Security Document, and the recently adopted African Union Charter on Maritime Security.
Speaking earlier, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, said, in the course of fighting maritime crimes the Nigerian Navy, in collaboration with other Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies (MLEAs), have arrested several vessels and persons involved in criminal activities within the maritime environment.
He further noted that, while some of the cases have been successfully prosecuted, the processes of enforcing the law in others have dragged on seemingly without conclusion.
He said, some of the arrested vessels have been in the custody of the Navy for over 10 years, which drains the Navy logistic and financial resources for their maintenance.
The Naval boss argued that the delay in the prosecution in most cases linked to inadequate synergy among MLEAs, which creates loopholes for the perpetrators to evade justice and sometimes drag the MLEAs into litigations that could have been avoided.
His words: “some of these criminal elements walk freely back into the streets without facing justice. Some of them even return to the maritime environment to commit further crimes to the detriment of the nation.”
He added, this made it important to develop the HSOP to serve as prescription of standard operating procedure for the multiple agencies operating within Nigeria’s maritime environment.
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