The Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has charged the Nigerian Navy to ensure adequate security at the nation’s water. The governor also decried the high rate of piracy, crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism and other criminal activities in the nation’s maritime domain.
Okowa made this known at the opening ceremony of a 2-day retreat for the Nigerian Navy in Asaba on Monday.
He said, “It is an incontrovertible fact that maritime security and national prosperity are inextricably linked together; therefore, at this critical juncture in the nation’s history, I expect the Nigerian Navy to treat the issue of maritime security as a national emergency because today, the country is hanging precariously on a financial cliff owing to dwindling receipts to the Federation Account occasioned by the falling oil prices,”
“piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has continued to prosper; rampant crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism are still flourishing and Nigeria loses between 40,000 and 100,000 barrels (of crude oil) a day due to theft while illegal fishing (poaching) and pollution that threatens the local food supply is also thriving in addition to the fact that drug and human trafficking are enjoying a boom in the West African coastlines.”
The governor who applauded the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies for tackling criminal activities in the maritime sector said, “as an oil producing state, is caught in the crosshairs of these unfortunate development in the maritime sector as the state has continued to lose huge revenues to oil thieves and pipeline vandals, with severe adverse consequences on our already depleted finances.”
Okowa expressed optimism that the outcome of the retreat would shape the policy direction for security and governance in the Gulf of Guinea which Nigeria is part of.
Comments