Abuja – The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ekwe Ibas said the recent attack on a gas facility in Delta State would be treated by the Nigerian Navy as a terrorist attack rather than mere pipeline vandalism.
Ibok said this in Abuja on Wednesday on the sideline of a lecture he delivered at the National Defence College titled `Nigerian Navy: Challenges and Future Perspectives.’
Ibok, who described the incident as unfortunate, said the Navy would not take it lightly, stressing that the act was capable of undermining its recent efforts to secure the nation’s maritime sector.
“The incident that just happened recently is rather unfortunate and of course that cannot be taken lightly by any serious nation and of course the Nigerian Navy is not going to take it lightly as well.
“We have made it clear that it goes beyond just mere vandalism for the purpose of making any gains; this is absolute sabotage, something that can even be termed terrorism.
“If the guys were doing that to derive benefit from the destruction then one will say it is vandalism but that is not the case,’’ he said.
Ibas advocated the establishment of special courts to address the menace of maritime crimes, stressing that conventional courts had failed to arrest the situation.
He said many of the suspects arrested by the Navy had often times exploited lapses in the nation’s judicial system to evade prosecution.
“Over 163 suspects were arrested by the Navy for various crimes and handed over for prosecution by relevant law enforcement agencies between Jan. and Dec. 2015.
“Experience has shown that suspects explore lapses in our judicial system to evade prosecution.
“We believe that the establishment of a special court or tribunal that is mandated to address all the outstanding cases with respect to the seizures and arrests made by the Navy will reduce the incidences of the illegality in the maritime sector.’’
Ibas, however, noted that his administration was working to enhance the operational capacity of the Nigerian navy in line with his vision and the content of the Navy’s transformation plan.
He said response capability of the Nigerian Navy was also being enhanced by the acquisition of more vessels such as logistics ships, patrol boats among others.
He identified inadequate funding, poor industrial base, inadequate barracks accommodation for personnel and contemporary threats to maritime security as some of challenges militating against the actualisation of the Navy’s broad objectives.
Earlier, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri blamed the poor funding of strategic communication and intelligence operations for the lapses experienced in the counter-insurgency operation under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Omeri, who delivered a paper on `Strategic Communication in National Security’, said the communication and intelligence aspect of the fight against Boko Haram under the Jonathan administration was poor.
“To a large extent, at the onset of the fight, the absence of a clear national communication strategy also played a crucial role in the lapses experienced.
“Nothing is wrong for a country to sit down with its expert to define and design what its communication strategy should.
“The failure of strategic communication which also supports intelligence, impacted negatively on the country’s fight against the terrorists,’’ Omeri said.
He said the channel of communicating the military operations to the media was disjointed and not properly coordinated
Omeri urged the Federal Government in collaboration with the military hierarchy to adopt a strategy that was not only proactive but consistent and coordinated.
