The Nigerian Navy has asserted its zero-tolerance posture for crimes within Nigeria’s maritime environment, just as it announced the arrest of a vessel, MV MOTHER CABRINI with illegally refined products and for switching off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) which is an infraction of the nation’s maritime laws.

In shipping, ships are mandated to always leave their AIS switched on for the ease of monitoring their activities. When switched off, it implies that the Vessel is hiding from being monitored and her activities become suspicious.

Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy (NN) Forward Operating Base (FOB) BONNY, Capt. Reginald Adoki made this assertion during a press interview aboard the MV MOTHER CABRINI on Thursday, November 9, 2023 along the Bonny Channel.

He said that the anti-Crude Oil Theft Unit of the Base arrested the vessel on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at about 10am and upon inspection of her tanks, it was discovered that the vessel was laden with petroleum product suspected to be Automated Gas Oil popularly known as ‘AGO’.

It was also discovered that the vessel was operating in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment without due authorisation as she did not have valid documentations.

“The Base responded by deploying the tactical unit when we had credible intelligence that the vessel was out bound in the Bonny Channel proceeding outwards to sea. On intercepting the vessel, we carried out physical inspections of her tanks, scrutinised her documents and also interrogated the crew.  So between yesterday and today we have been able to establish some findings, so far.”

“The first one is the fact that the captain of the vessel claimed that was laden with over 80,000 litres of product. We initially have suspected it to be illegal AGO that’s diesel and to confirm our suspicion, samples of the product were immediately taken and sent to the NMDPRA approved laboratory in Port Harcourt.”

“When that was done and the results came in, the results confirmed our suspicions that the product in question was not genuine and is definitely from an illegal source, in this case the illegal refineries. You know that the illegal refineries get their products from crude oil or crude theft.”

“The second thing we observed is that the vessel has no International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Number and has no Call Sign. Now, IMO numbers are specifications for vessel with over 100 Gross Tonnage; now this vessel is over 100 Gross Tonnage without an IMO Number or Call Sign. It’s just like having a car without registration and that kind of situation suggests already, an intention to commit the crime.”

“On getting on board when we intercepted her, the AIS was switched off and AIS being switched off is an indication that a vessel intends to commit a crime. It became very suspicious and then further investigation showed that it has no documents from NIMASA to operate in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment.”

He asserted that the Nigerian Navy would continue to discharge its statutory mandate in consonance with extant laws governing the nation’s maritime territory and the strategic guidance of the Chief of Naval Staff, stressing that the zero-tolerance posture would be sustained, especially, during the yuletide season.

“We would definitely do what we need to do in accordance with the law and this is also an opportunity to assure the general public that the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base here in Bonny, in line with the statutory mandate of the Nigerian Navy and the strategic guidance of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogala, Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, will continue to maintain that zero tolerance posture against any form of maritime crimes within the area and that’s what we are more committed to doing, especially, at this period of the year where a lot of crimes of this nature keep happening.” 

The Commanding Officer also informed that upon conclusion of investigations, the vessel and its crew would be handed over to the appropriate agency of the Government for further investigations and subsequent prosecution, noting that this was in line with the Navy’s strategic partnership with other security agencies.

“This is also to assure that we will continue to work with relevant maritime stakeholders and partners so that we can eradicate maritime crimes, especially, those that impinges on Nigeria’s economic growth.” 

Assuring that the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base in Bonny will scale up its aggression against criminal elements around its region of operation, Capt. Adoki explained that since his assumption of office as Commanding Officer, the Base has recorded some significant successes such as arrests of kidnappers, rescue of a vessel captain, as well as disruption and interception of illegal bunkering and crude oil theft boats, adding that “this is facilitated by our short response time to intelligence and distress calls”.

“Since I took over FOB BONNY, we’ve had few cases which we had dealt with immediately; we arrested sea kidnappers. We’ve taken action when possible piracy cases were reported and then the aspect of crude oil theft, we’ve been very swift in responding to them.”

“What we’ve done, so far, is to reduce our reaction time and that’s why in a matter of minutes the Base Tactical Units have always responded to any call. Remember last week we rescued a captain of a vessel that was hijacked by some sea robbers or kidnappers and they were asking for ransom. We responded immediately to the area and dislodged them while rescuing the captain.”

“This shows how committed we are at this period of the year and this is what we will keep doing throughout this ember month as crimes usually increase at this period of the year. This is our posture and this is in line with the expectation of the Eastern Naval Command Headquarters during the ongoing Confrontation Phase of the FOC’s Concept of Operation for the last quarter of the year, drawn from the Strategic Guidance of the CNS”.