The threat of piracy and kidnap has been persistent in the Niger Delta region and Bonny Island waters for some time. However, that threat has escalated in recent months. The prevalence of reported armed robbery, piracy and kidnapping cases comes despite various efforts to tackle these scourges both within Nigeria and on a regional West African level.

Nigeria is undeniably a rich country based on its economic, agricultural and population advantages, but criminal activities like piracy have been a significant disadvantage. Most of the piracy activities happening in Nigeria are mainly located in the Niger Delta region, the heart of Nigeria’s oil and gas exploration. Some of the unemployed youths of the region use piracy activities as a fight-back against the so-called “resource control” embarked upon by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which disadvantages them.

The Nigerian government has committed to a range of measures to try and wrest back control of Nigeria’s territorial waters. In early 2019, a new security programme called ‘Deep Blue Project’ was initiated where the government removed the previous secure anchorage arrangement and the Nigerian Navy is now responsible for maintaining safety and security in these waters.

In June 2019, a new act to tackle piracy received assent by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences Act 2019 (SPOMO). The new act was hailed as a successful initiative in the same realm like the Yaoundé Code of Conduct with Nigeria becoming the first nation in the region to ratify a law to specifically combat piracy. The purpose of SPOMO is to prevent and curb piracy, armed robbery and other unlawful acts at sea, within Nigerian waters.

The effectiveness of the new act was recently tested when in August 2020, the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt convicted three of the nine accused of hijacking a passenger/ro-ro ship off the Equatorial Guinea coast in March. This was the first conviction under SPOMO with the judge ordering each of the convicted parties to pay quite significant fines. It remains to be seen whether such measures introduced by the Nigerian government will be enough to deter would-be pirates.

Maritime security challenges on the Bonny River and adjoining waterways continue unabated, mainly without security intervention. With the worsening situation have also come accusations of complicity by the security agencies with perpetrators of crime and violence on the Island. Though these accusation remain generally speculative, expectations were that, with all that was going on in the island with regards to the security situation, the security agencies would fast-track action to investigate and bring the perpetrators of such crimes to book.

In an attempt to put the spiraling spate of insecurity in perspective, a Research Scientist at University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Dr Abarasi Abbey-Hart informed that between January 2020 and January 2021 there have been a total of 12 security incidents involving 11 attacks on 8 speedboats and 3 ships, 9 abductions, 3 fatalities including one baby thrown into the river, one missing toddler, and loss of properties worth hundreds of millions.   

He enumerated this thus:

These are some of the review of 2020 sea pirate attacks.

•     January, 2020, Sea pirate attack. No official statement made on the extent of causality.

•     26th January 2020, gunmen abducted Mr Mina Jumbo and Lawrence Green. A police man was shot dead.

•     14th February, 2020, sea pirate attacked a vessel Maersk Tema. They held the crew hostage.

•     12th September 2020, Banigo village attacked, 5 persons abducted (Mr Sunny Hart, Daniel Dagogo Robert Hart, Theophilus Ibiama, Mr Thompson Micah Allison and Mr Jackmay), three shot and many injured. They are still under hostage till date.

•     29th September Sea pirates attacked boat going to Karr market from Bonny in which a 3 months old baby was thrown into the River (Bonny – Andoni route)

•     8th November 2020, a boat was attacked, but the driver drove into the mangrove in which all the passengers ran into the muddy mangrove. Their properties were carted away from the grounded boat by the armed robbers. Many of the passengers sustained injuries.

•     30th November 2020, a boat from PH to Bonny was hijacked with the passengers. The passengers were stripped naked, while two men were abducted (Kidnapped).

•     13th December 2020, Gabriella Sokari Tolofari aged 5 years missing in Bethel community. No statement from the community or government, no culprits.

•     18th December 2020, LNG Lagos II reported a pirate threat to vessel and crew en route the Bonny terminal

•     19th December 2020, MAERSK CADIZ (9526459) was attacked by unknown number of suspected pirates while sailing from Tema to Kiribi South West Bonny Island.

•     3rd January 2021, a boat was hijacked coming back from Inyoba-Ama village.

•     5th January 2021, a boat was attacked coming from Dema-Abbey village. The passengers jumped into the River (we lost two vibrant youths Ibifubara Macdonald and Dienye Allison, and they took the boat engines).

According to the erudite academic, “people are no longer silent, they are calling on the Inspector General of Police, and the Chief of Naval Staff to investigate why the Police and the Navy and Marine Police have refused to act on the wave of sea piracy on the Island”.

He noted that “different posts on different Facebook groups are demanding urgent action on the part of the youths to pressure authorities to do more to safeguard lives on the Bonny waterways, proposing that the way forward to this menace should include 1) Reposting of officers of the Marine Police who have served on the island for over 2 years 2) Putting available gunboats into judicious use while asking for more gunboats.

It will continue to be a downside to the service records of the tour of duty of various security commanders posted to Bonny LGA should this menace of sea piracy continue unabated. It is imperative that the various security services understand the unique status of Bonny Island to the economic and developmental wellbeing of Nigeria.

Protecting the island community from identified and perceived threats is a task that is inevitable if the economic integrity of Nigeria would be sustained. Bonny Island alone is hosting multibillion dollar investment in which the Federal Government of Nigeria has more than 50% stake with an annual revenue turnover of over one trillion naira.

Moreso, the continued recurrence of these attacks on travelers on the Bonny waterways could trigger self-help efforts by the affected community and this if not properly managed could snowball into a second wave of Niger Delta insurgency that would cost the nation billions of dollars again to rein in.

Particular areas to beam the invasive searchlight of the security agencies should be Dema Abbey where there are two dumps of artisanal refined fuel with as many camps of criminal gangs overwatching their “business” around the area covering Dan-Jumbo, Banigo, Greens, Polokiri, Arugbana-Ama; the cluster of communities comprising Inyoba-Ama, Ererekiri and Otobie; Oloma and Fuakpa fishing settlements, the whole stretch of the Andoni River, the fishing settlements and communities adjacent to the Yellow Platform; among several others.

Lizzy Hart, a strategic communications expert and columnist with Kristina Reports wrote in from Port Harcourt.