Director-General Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said that the agency was championing anti-piracy law in order to effectively fight illegal activities in the nation’s waterways
Peterside in Abuja said that NIMASA’s active support for anti-piracy law was aimed at tackling piracy and all forms of illicit crimes on the nation’s waterways. He was optimistic that the agency would present the Anti-Piracy Bill to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill soon to fight piracy in the nation’s waterways.
He said, when passed, the bill will make Nigeria become the first African country to have a committed anti-piracy law. According to Peterside, the agency is currently working towards the rapid adoption of the executive bill, as the draft has already been sent to the Federal Ministry of Justice
He further said “The desire of the government is to ensure cleaner oceans and to eliminate sea piracy, armed robbery and all forms of illegalities within Nigeria’s maritime space which is in line with the 2050 African Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS)”. He noted that Africa seas and oceans were heritages that the continent must do all it could to protect; pointing out that NIMASA would continue to work together with all relevant government agencies to ensure that the country’s maritime sector is safe, clean and secured in order to continue to attract both local and foreign investors.
“It is a well-known fact that Africa seas and oceans are usually overlooked when it comes to issues of sustainable development in Africa, to the extent that Africa is considered to be sea blind; sea blind because there is low level awareness of the potentials for wealth creation which abounds in the seas and oceans.”
