#TrackNigeria: The Nigerian Navy has called for inter-agency cooperation to curb the rampant cases of smuggling in the maritime sector.
The Commandant of Naval War College, Rear Admiral, Adeseye Ayobanjo, made the appeal at a seminar on Inter-Agency Cooperation in Maritime Security on Wednesday in Calabar.
The theme of the seminar was: Combating Smuggling through Inter-agency Cooperation.
Ayobanjo said that the seminar was organised by the college to enhance maritime security and promote inter-agency cooperation.
Ayobanjo said that the maritime sector had over the years been used as a route for smuggling activities, adding that such trend undermined the security and growth of Nigeria.
“Overtime, we have had maritime security challenges. We have several stakeholders operating in this environment in spite of the fact that the Nigerian Navy is the lead agency in the maritime sector.
“We require a lot synergy with other agencies in this regard.
“This seminar is part of the module in the Naval War College. We train our participants on enhancing the synergy between the navy and other maritime stakeholders in the maritime domain.
“The theme of the seminar is centered on smuggling which is one of the crimes in our maritime environment.
“We hope to come out with a workable framework at the end of the seminar for a more secured maritime environment,’’ he said.
Commodore Olukoya Bamidele, urged enforcement agencies to always ensure that a detained vessel did not escape from custody.
Bamidele spoke on “Implementation of Harmonised Standard of Operations on Arrest, Detention and Prosecution of Vessels.”
Other heads of security agencies present at the seminar included those of the Customs, the Nigerian Air Force, Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. (NAN)
