Nigerian authorities seeks inter-agency collaboration to fight piracy

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has called for the deployment of inter-agency resources to secure the country's maritime domain and check rising cases of piracy.

Dakuku Peterside, director general of NIMASA, who made the call on Friday when he visited the Air Force Headquarters in Abuja, the nation's capital, said he was seeking collaborative ways of dealing with the rising cases of piracy in Nigerian waters.

He requested the immediate review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which the agency had with the Nigerian Air Force.

The director-general said this would strengthen the agency's capacity to deal with maritime crimes and reduce the response time for Search and Rescue (SAR) operations.

He commended the Nigerian Air Force and indeed the military for the successful prosecution of the war against insurgency in the North East.

The director-general said maritime security needed a multi-sectoral and inter-agency collaboration.

Peterside called on relevant stakeholders to pool resources together to defeat piracy and other maritime crimes for the economic prosperity of the nation.

He pledged the commitment of NIMASA to partner with the Nigerian Air Force in order to fight the economic crime and re-position Nigeria as a major hub for maritime activities in the West and Central Africa sub-region.

NIMASA and the Nigerian Air Force had endorsed the Memorandum of Understanding, where the Air Force is expected to provide air surveillance of the maritime domain.

The Force is also expected to provide support to the NIMASA's Search and Rescue operations, among others.

Nigerian pirates operating in the Gulf of Guinea are upping their game, launching a wave of attacks and kidnappings against international vessels in recent weeks.

Pirate attacks off Nigeria are seeing a resurgence, at a rate of nearly one a week in the past three months, new numbers show.

These attacks are increasing in frequency with no signs of stopping, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in its latest report.

Source: XINHUA