by our correspondent.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has declared its intention to work in partnership with the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in the fight against piracy and other crimes in the country’s maritime domain.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, disclosed this in Abuja during a working visit to the interim Sole Administrator of PAP, Col. Milland Dikio (rtd.).
Jamoh underscored the importance of collaboration among relevant agencies and communities in the quest for maritime security, saying, “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.”
“We cannot proffer solution to the issues and crisis in the Niger Delta without the collaboration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.” He added.
The NIMASA DG said a Maritime Intelligence Unit has been established by NIMASA to help in the identification of early warning signs in order to prevent security breaches in the littoral areas. He noted that many of the assets being installed and deployed under the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure (the Deep Blue Project) has intelligence gathering capabilities through air, land and sea surveillance.
DG, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh (right), and interim Sole Administrator, (PAP) , Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.), greeting with elbow bumps in Abuja, recently.
Jamoh has prioritised advocacy for inter-agency cooperation in the fight against maritime insecurity since his appointment last year.
For his part, Dikio promised to vigorously pursue detecting the early warning signs and engaging early responses to prevent security challenges at their early stages and commended the NIMASA boss for his vision and commitment to maritime security.
The PAP boss expressed the willingness of his agency to partner with NIMASA, especially in the empowerment of the locals adding that the people’s knowledge of the local communities should be leveraged in the area of information gathering.
He suggested that the training programme being planned by NIMASA should target subjects relevant to the Niger Delta in order to impact the people directly to get to the root of the problems in the area.
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