No increase in piracy since cancellation of Secured Anchorage Contract — Ship Owners, Master Mariners

Ship owners and Master Mariners have commended NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy for securing the Lagos anchorage area and ensuring that there has been no pirate attack after the cancellation of the OMSL contract by the Federal Government about two months ago.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari recently cancelled the controversial Lagos Secure Anchorage Area (SAA) contract handled by Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL).

The contract, in which OMSL, in partnership with the Nigerian Navy had been providing security services to foreign ships calling at the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports in Lagos at $2,000 per day at a designated area called the Secured Anchorage Area, became controversial when the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, in February last year announced its cancellation, asking NIMASA and Nigerian Ports Authourity to take charge of the security of the area.

But, about three months into the cancellation, ship owners and Master Mariners have commended the role played by NIMASA and the Nigeria Navy in ensuring the security of the Lagos anchorage, while calling that such security should not be limited to Lagos anchorage alone.

Recalls that at a recent meeting with the Shipping Association of Nigeria, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh had assured that the agency was intensifying efforts to protect, interdict, and deter threats around vessels anchored in the SAA.

Jamoh Bashir said the new security effort was encapsulated in the total deployment of assets under the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure, also called the Deep Blue Project.

The deployment is on-going with the primary aim of providing security in Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea and tackling the security challenges encumbering the shipping business in the area.