Nigeria is moving to fully operationalise the Combined Maritime Task Force to strengthen the fight against piracy, crude oil theft, and drug and arms trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea, Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, said on Monday.
Vanguard reported that Oluyede, represented by the Chief of Defence Policy and Plans, Air Vice Marshal Francis Edosa, spoke at the opening of the Third Maritime Security Symposium in Lagos, organised by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies and the Combined Maritime Task Force (CMTF).
He said the Armed Forces of Nigeria was working towards deploying Nigerian Navy assets assigned to the task force, as part of the country’s commitment to regional maritime security.
He said the maritime domain was vital to Africa’s economy, supporting trade, fisheries, energy and transportation, but warned that criminal and terrorist networks continued to exploit the same space for piracy, trafficking and illegal fishing.
He said such threats could not be tackled by any single country, noting that President Bola Tinubu had underscored Nigeria’s commitment by personally presenting the command flag to the CMTF’s commander at its launch.
The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (rtd), represented by Maj. Gen. Olufemi Akinjobi (rtd), called on more countries to join the CMTF, saying the maritime environment had long received inadequate attention in Africa despite its economic potential.
He said insecurity on the continent, particularly terrorism, was fuelled by drugs and weapons trafficked through the Gulf of Guinea, urging nations, the private sector and non-governmental bodies to join the initiative.
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Idi Abbas, represented by the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command (WNC), Rear Admiral Abubakar Mustapha, said the symposium was meant to review existing maritime security frameworks, including the Yaounde Architecture, to improve the CMTF’s operational effectiveness.
He said the Navy was already working with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to intercept vessels suspected of ferrying illicit drugs from South America, disclosing that the two agencies had recently destroyed more than 516 kilogrammes of narcotics.
The United States Consul General in Lagos, Brandon Hudspeth, said piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea had dropped significantly and Nigeria had been removed from major piracy watchlists, but warned against complacency as criminal networks kept adapting.
He reaffirmed US support for regional maritime security through initiatives such as Obangame Express.
The Chief Interface Officer, NNPC Limited, Dahiru Sani Gwarzo, said the task force had improved information sharing among security and intelligence agencies and was key to tackling crude oil theft in Nigerian waters, which he expressed hope would be reduced to zero once the CMTF became fully operational.
