Takes Delivery of a Special Mission Vessel, Trains Personnel

ED. Operations NIMASA, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin (FNSE) and Chairman Project Monitoring Team and Director Project Services of the Ministry of Defence, Mrs. Olu Mustapha presenting certificates to Mr. Ibrahim Gana during the graduating ceremony.

Irked by security issues on Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea, GoG, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has takenproactive steps towards the implementation of an integrated surveillance and security architecture to broadly tackle insecurity as the Agency  takes delivery of a special mission vessel under the Deep Blue Project.

Chairman of the Project Monitoring Team for the Deep Blue Project, also known as Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure, Mrs. Olu Mustapha, disclosed this  at a graduation ceremony organised by the NIMASA for a new set of C4i system operators.

The Command, Control, Computer Communication and intelligence (C4i) centre located at the NIMASA-owned Nigerian Maritime Resource Development Centre (NMRDC), Kirikiri, acts as the nerve centre for operations and workflow managementfor all platforms under the Deep Blue Project. The graduation of the C4i operators marks another milestone towards the total commencement of the project.

Mustapha, who is also the Director, Project Services, at the Ministry of Defence, said the essence of the training for the intelligence officers was to ensure adequate capacity to man the assets under the Deep Blue Project, especially with commencement of the receipt of the special assets.

According to her, “The assets of the Deep Blue Project must be manned by competent personnel and that is what we are committed to through various training programmes for different components of the project. This graduation of C4i system operators will produce additional personnel for the optimisation of the system.”

While lamenting the negative effects of insecurity in the Nigeria maritime domain and the Gulf of Guinea, Dakuku said the President Mohammadu Buhari administration was committed to diversifying the economy and the maritime sector is seen as the economic game changer in this direction. Security of the maritime environment was therefore a top priority of the administration.

According to Dakuku, “The Nigerian maritime domain and the Gulf of Guinea are known globally as major maritime security flashpoints. In addressing the challenges, a bi-ministerial collaboration of the Federal Ministries of Defence and Transportation, as well the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) developed a maritime security architecture comprising all military and security services as well as NIMASA to ensure a conducive environment for maritime to thrive.”

 Represented by the Agency’s Executive Director, Operations, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, Dakuku disclosed that the Federal Government, through NIMASA, had invested ample resources in infrastructure, including the critical manpower component required to run the Deep Blue Project effectively and efficiently.

The DG asked the graduands to bring the skills and experience they acquired during their training to bear on the national security assignment.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of certificates by Mustapha to the 24 graduands including Mr. Ibrahim Gana, who emerged the best graduating student.

Commissioned in August this year, the C4i centre is equipped with alert setting capabilities, Coastal Automatic Identification System (AIS), and SAT AIS signals all over the world, in liaison with other international security networks, for access to database for vessel movement. It also has the capacity for six-year retrospective monitoring of vessels movement.