Nigerian Navy Takes Part In Special Military Exercise To Curb Crimes In Nation’s Waterways

In an effort to thwart crude oil theft and insecurity, the Nigerian Navy's 10 warships have returned to base in the country's waters and the Gulf of Guinea.

A joint sea exercise was organized by the Central and Eastern Naval Commands to tackle maritime crime. The warships including Nigeria Navy Ship (NNS) Sagbama, NNS Nwamba, NNS Ibeno, NNS Dorina, NNS Gongola, NNS Ikene, NNS Badagry, NNS Oji, NNS Ose and NNS Okpoku participated in the military exercise.

This exercise was done to end crude oil theft, sea robbery, and sea piracy happening via water routes. The Flag Officer Commanding Central Naval Command, Umar Chugali, a rear admiral disclosed on Sunday the exercise was named, "Exercise Sea Guardian," and called it a huge success.

Chugali shared the activity groomed the officers to fight criminals, who use the maritime route.

"The Nigerian Navy is doing its best to stamp out criminality within the maritime domain and also salvage the nation's economy by eradicating crude oil theft among other crimes within the maritime space," he said, The Guardian reported.

"Other activities include communications and emergency drills such as firefighting, steering gear breakdown, machinery failure, abandon and man, and cheer ship."

Chugali explained that this exercise was done to demonstrate the capacity and capability of our ships at sea, to secure Nigeria's maritime space and the Gulf of Guinea, adding it was a four-day exercise, highlighting the navy's readiness in tackling all forms of maritime crimes within Nigeria's maritime environment and Gulf of Guinea.

Another rear admiral and Flag Officer Commanding ENC, Olusola Oluwagbire, shared the exercise was done by troops from both eastern and central naval commands that are located in Calabar and Yenagoa, respectively.

"We are using this exercise to test our capability and readiness to safeguard our waters and the GoG from criminals," Oluwagbire said. "We are doing our best to present the best foot (personnel) in our deployments – both in terms of personnel and assets."

The Commanding Officer, NNS Sagbama, Stephen Ebute, noted the exercise helped troops improve their onshore and offshore operations, adding that "this will enable us to expertly tackle emergencies in our ships as well as curtailing the various threats in our maritime domain."

Nigeria, which is a major crude oil producer in Africa, has been struggling with issues concerning illegal oil refineries for several years now, as many local communities and criminal organizations in the oil-rich Niger Delta region continue to extract and refine crude oil illegally.

Last month, for instance, eight vessels with 100,000 liters of illegally refined automotive gas oil, also known as diesel, were seized during Operation Delta Safe conducted by the Military Joint Task Force in Rivers State.