…GULF OF GUINEA NO LONGER SAFE HAVEN FOR PIRATES-JAMOH
The Nigerian Government has handed over the fishing vessel Marine 707
suspected to be carrying out illegal activities in the Gulf of Guinea to
the Ghanian authorities for further investigation and possible
prosecution. Nigeria also handed over 51 crew members including 48
Ghanaians and 3 south Korea nationals to the Government of Ghana and
Korea respectively.
The vessel which had the authorization to fish in Ghana and Benin waters
was arrested by the Nigerian Navy on the 18th of May, 2020 around the
southwest of Lagos waters with her Automatic Identification System
(AIS) switched off after being suspected to be used for piracy or being
used as a mother ship to conduct piracy in the Gulf of Guinea was handed
over to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)
after preliminary investigations by the Navy.
While speaking during the official hand over of the Ghanian flagged
vessel and the crew to the respective authorities, the Director-General
of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Bashir
Jamoh said that the Navy, NIMASA partnership which is now hinged on
intelligence has put Nigeria on a pedestal of winning the war against
piracy and other illegal acts at sea.
Jamoh who was represented by the agency’s commander, Maritime Guard
Command Commodore Aniete Ibok disclosed that though preliminary
investigations could not establish that the Vessel and her crew were
directly linked to piracy, however, the vessel still ran foul of
international laws for shutting down its Automatic Identification System
(AIS) 36 times in the last 6 months, 3 of which were done in the
Nigerian waters.
According to him “we are handing over this vessel to the Ghanian
authorities in the spirit of bilateral cooperation both countries enjoy.
We have done our preliminary investigations and we are yet to establish
any concrete evidence against the vessel but again, we would not know
what she would be doing whenever she turns off her AIS which occurred 36
times without being logged in her record book in line with international
protocols and three of these were in our domain. However in the spirit
of brotherhood that Ghana and Nigeria enjoys we are handing over the
vessel to Ghana for further investigations”
The NIMASA DG further warned that individuals or organizations thinking
of perpetuating any form of illegalities in the Gulf of Guinea should be
ready to face the full wrath of the law with the Antipiracy law in place
along with the NAVY, NIMASA partnership that is waxing stronger with a
major focus on security in the Nigerian maritime domain and the entire
Gulf of Guinea.
“we will not condone any act of illegalities in our maritime space, we
have improved our intelligence sharing with relevant Agencies and with
what we are doing now in no distant time piracy will be a thing of the
past in the Gulf of Guinea because we have a robust antipiracy law that
will deal with perpetrators of illegalities in our waters”
While receiving the vessel and the crew on behalf of the Ghana Maritime
Authority, the Second Secretary Consular of Ghana in Nigeria, David Ako
sowah commended the Nigerian authorities for being professional in
handling the case. He said what Nigeria is doing is for the benefit of
the entire countries in the Gulf Guinea.
In his words “As the big brother in this region, Nigeria has done well
in showing a lot of maturity in handling this case and I want to assure
you that Ghana would also look into more collaborations in Nigeria to
ensure that the Gulf of Guinea remains safe for maritime activities”.
Equally speaking during the handover, the Consular General of the
Republic of Korea in Nigeria Kim Ln-taek, commended the party involved
in handling the case. He said his findings from the Captain of the Ship
who is a Korean informs that the AIS was bad. He noted that the vessel
and her crew erred by not following the protocols of logging it in the
record books when the AIS was down but he was happy that the case has
been resolved up till this point.
The Ghana flagged vessel with International Maritime Organisation’s
(IMO) number 7419755 and registration number 316880 is owned and
operated by World Marine Company Limited, Japan, and as at the time of
arrest it had 51 crew onboard with all being Ghanaians except 3 who are
from the Republic of Korea.
This case also brings to the fore the efforts of NIMASA and NAVY in the
battle against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. It would be recalled that
the Navy recently arrested 10 pirates on a Chinese fishing vessel and
handed them over for prosecution under the newly signed anti-piracy law.
