The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has stepped up enforcement of the Cabotage regime. It has detained vessels found to have breached the country’s coastal shipping regulations, as part of efforts to ensure compliance with local content requirements in the maritime sector.
The operation targeted vessels of interest identified through intelligence and surveillance profiling. It led to the arrest and detention of several vessels within the Lagos maritime domain for nonconformity, including MT HOLMES, MT FUJAIRAH ENERGY, JS GRATITUDE and MT BORA.
Some of the vessels have since regularised their infractions and have been released.
Code-named Operation Sea Guardian, the exercise was a follow-up enforcement initiative. It was meant to strengthen regulatory compliance, verify cabotage obligations, assess compliance with surcharge and levy requirements, and ensure adherence to applicable maritime regulations.
The operation deployed Deep Blue assets to track, board, inspect and verify the operational status of vessels flagged through intelligence reports and compliance indicators.
It was carried out through inter-agency cooperation among NIMASA enforcement personnel, the Nigerian Navy, the Maritime Guard Command and C4i intelligence personnel.
Reacting to the development, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Dayo Mobereola, said such operations would become more frequent and that defaulting operators would face the full weight of the law.
According to him, “we had earlier served notice of enhanced enforcement of indigenous participation in our coastal and inland trade and this is exactly what we are doing. It is therefore in the interest of operators to ensure total compliance because defaulters will be visited with stiff sanctions in line with the law.”
