![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/PIC4-600x400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"…GULF OF GUINEA\u00a0NO LONGER SAFE HAVEN FOR PIRATES-JAMOH<\/p>\n
The Nigerian Government has handed over the fishing vessel Marine 707
\nsuspected to be carrying out illegal activities in the Gulf of Guinea to
\nthe Ghanian authorities for further investigation and possible
\nprosecution. Nigeria also handed over 51 crew members including 48
\nGhanaians and 3 south Korea nationals to the Government of Ghana and
\nKorea respectively.<\/p>\n
The vessel which had the authorization to fish in Ghana and Benin waters
\nwas arrested by the Nigerian Navy on the 18th of May, 2020 around the
\nsouthwest of Lagos waters with her\u00a0 Automatic Identification System
\n(AIS) switched off after being suspected to be used for piracy or being
\nused as a mother ship to conduct piracy in the Gulf of Guinea was handed
\nover to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)
\nafter preliminary investigations by the Navy.<\/p>\n
While speaking during the official hand over of the Ghanian flagged
\nvessel and the crew to the respective authorities, the Director-General
\nof the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Bashir
\nJamoh said that the Navy, NIMASA partnership which is now hinged on
\nintelligence has put Nigeria on a pedestal of winning the war against
\npiracy and other illegal acts at sea.<\/p>\n
Jamoh who was represented by the agency’s commander, Maritime Guard
\nCommand Commodore Aniete Ibok disclosed that though preliminary
\ninvestigations could not establish that the Vessel and her crew were
\ndirectly linked to piracy, however, the vessel still ran foul of
\ninternational laws for shutting down its Automatic Identification System
\n(AIS) 36 times in the last 6 months, 3 of which were done in the
\nNigerian waters.<\/p>\n
According to him “we are handing over this vessel to the Ghanian
\nauthorities in the spirit of bilateral cooperation both countries enjoy.
\nWe have done our preliminary investigations and we are yet to establish
\nany concrete evidence against the vessel but again, we would not know
\nwhat she would be doing whenever she turns off her AIS which occurred 36
\ntimes without being logged in her record book in line with international
\nprotocols and three of these were in our domain. However in the spirit
\nof brotherhood that Ghana and Nigeria enjoys we are handing over the
\nvessel to Ghana for further investigations”<\/p>\n
The NIMASA DG further warned that individuals or organizations thinking
\nof perpetuating any form of illegalities in the Gulf of Guinea should be
\nready to face the full wrath of the law with the Antipiracy law in place
\nalong with the NAVY, NIMASA partnership that is waxing stronger with a
\nmajor focus on security in the Nigerian maritime domain and the entire
\nGulf of Guinea.<\/p>\n
“we will not condone any act of illegalities in our maritime space, we
\nhave improved our intelligence sharing with relevant Agencies and with
\nwhat we are doing now in no distant time piracy will be a thing of the
\npast in the Gulf of Guinea because we have a robust antipiracy law that
\nwill deal with perpetrators of illegalities in our waters”<\/p>\n
While receiving the vessel and the crew on behalf of the Ghana Maritime
\nAuthority, the Second Secretary Consular of Ghana in Nigeria, David Ako
\nsowah commended the Nigerian authorities for being professional in
\nhandling the case. He said what Nigeria is doing is for the benefit of
\nthe entire countries in the Gulf Guinea.<\/p>\n
In his words “As the big brother in this region, Nigeria has done well
\nin showing a lot of maturity in handling this case and I want to assure
\nyou that Ghana would also look into more collaborations in Nigeria to
\nensure that the Gulf of Guinea remains safe for maritime activities”.<\/p>\n
Equally speaking during the handover, the Consular General of the
\nRepublic of Korea in Nigeria Kim Ln-taek, commended the party involved
\nin handling the case. He said his findings from the Captain of the Ship
\nwho is a Korean informs that the AIS was bad. He noted that the vessel
\nand her crew erred by not following the protocols of logging it in the
\nrecord books when the AIS was down but he was happy that the case has
\nbeen resolved up till this point.<\/p>\n
The Ghana flagged vessel with International Maritime Organisation’s
\n(IMO) number 7419755 and registration number 316880 is owned and
\noperated by World Marine Company Limited, Japan, and as at the time of
\narrest it had 51 crew onboard with all being Ghanaians except 3 who are
\nfrom the Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n
This case also brings to the fore the efforts of NIMASA and NAVY in the
\nbattle against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. It would be recalled that
\nthe Navy recently arrested 10 pirates on a Chinese fishing vessel and
\nhanded them over for prosecution under the newly signed anti-piracy law.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
…GULF OF GUINEA\u00a0NO 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n