Seek Collaboration to Safeguard Maritime Domain, Detect and Act on Warning Signals

Dr. Bashir Jamoh, DG, NIMASA

In continuation of efforts to curtail criminal activities on Nigerian waters, the Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has disclosed plans by his Agency to partner with the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in the fight against piracy and other crimes in the country’s maritime domain.

L/R : PAP interim Sole Administrator,  Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) and DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh,  greeting with elbow bumps during Jamoh’s visit.

Speaking with media men during a working visit to the interim Sole Administrator of PAP, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.), Dr. Jamoh reiterated the need for all Federal Government Agencies to collaborate to ensure maritime security.

L/R : PAP interim Sole Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) and DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, greeting with elbow bumps during Jamoh’s visit.

In his words “We should be working together in partnership to help us appreciate and evaluate the challenges from our various perspectives and collectively come up with solutions that would work for all of us, and the country at large”.

“Security problems more often than not have a local content. So, as the country’s maritime regulatory agency, we want to partner the amnesty programme, which interfaces with the littoral communities, to nip the security challenges in the bud, and stand our nation in good stead for the optimization of our huge maritime resources.” Jamoh said

Jamoh emphasized that “We cannot proffer solution to the issues and crisis in the Niger Delta without the collaboration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.”

The Director-General further disclosed that a Maritime Intelligence Unit was recently established by NIMASA to help in the identification of early warning signs in order to prevent security breaches in the littoral areas. He revealed that many of the assets being installed and deployed under the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure (the Deep Blue Project) had intelligence gathering capabilities through air, land and sea surveillance.

“NIMASA has plans to introduce educational and entrepreneurship training, as well as skill acquisition programmes in the areas of fishing, clearing and forwarding and legal bunkering for people in the coastal communities as a way of empowering them and discouraging criminal tendencies”. Jamoh said

While commending Jamoh for his commitment and passion to the issues of safety and security,  Dikio  said detecting warning signs and engaging early responses to prevent security challenges would be vigorously pursued.

Dikio said PAP is ready and willing to partner with NIMASA, especially in the empowerment of the locals. He suggested that the people’s knowledge of the local communities should be leveraged on in the area of information gathering.

Dikio also suggested that the training programmes being planned by NIMASA should target subjects relevant to the Niger Delta in order to impact them directly and get to the root of the problem.

He called for the appointment of nodal officers from PAP and NIMASA to interface and harmonize action points to fast-track the actualization of the partnership for the overall good of the maritime sector.