Jimitota Onoyume
22 December 2008
THE Navy in Rivers State has received four manta class boats and seven patrol craft boats that can travel a minimum of thirty nautical miles into the deeper parts of the sea.
It will also man ten patrol craft boats received by the Police in the state that can go the same distance.
Commander of the Naval Pathfinder in the state, Yusuf Hinna who made the disclosure weekend at a briefing with newsmen in his office said they were now poised to combat security challenges on the watersways in Rivers and Bayelsa States that are under his jurisdiction.
"We have received from our headquarters four manta class boats that can go sixty nautical miles into the waters. They are stationed in Bonny. We have also received seven patrol craft boats that can go up to thirty nautical miles. We have three on patrol already. They will go for thirty days. We have four at the jetty now."
"The police have received ten patrol craft boats. They will be jointly manned to maximize use. The navy will arm the boats since the police cannot carry the kind of weapons for the boats."
He said there was a decline in bunkering activities on the waterways in these areas because of the stiff resistance those into it are getting from the navy. He said as a rule the security body now destroys badges and vessels caught with illegal petroleum products.
According to him, it was no longer meaningful arresting these badges and vessels because in the first place there is no space in the navy jetty for them. And secondly when these arrests come up in court they drag on for too long.
"We don't make arrest of barges anymore. We only destroy them. The barges constitute menace on our (navy) waters. The judicial process on arrested barges drags on for too long. We have had cases that lasted five years."
The navy boss said some of the piracy cases reported on the waterways were acts neatly plotted by the vessel crew in connivance with brigands on the waters.
"When these crew members have disposed off what they have in their vessel illegally they connive with militants to attack them so that they can tell the owners of the vessels and the supplies that they were attacked by militants and their supplies were diverted by the militants. It is just some of the common fraud on the waters that are made to look like acts of piracy.
The boat crew men arrange these things sometimes. Real case of piracy is on the decline on our water ways."
While thanking the Rivers state government for its tremendous support to the navy in the state the navy boss said arrangement had been concluded to see that the navy provides security for a water taxi boat acquired by the state government to ease water transportation in the state.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
