Captain Tajudeen Alao has identified the inability of the Federal Government to prosecute suspected pirates arrested on the Nigerian waters in the country as a major factor militating against the war on piracy.
Alao who disclosed this while speaking with our correspondent in Lagos last week decried the non application of any national rule on the international waters describing it as a major setback for the country in its resolve to make piracy a thing of the past.
He noted that since there was no law that says that one should shoot at pirates at sea, pirates enjoy protection under the law as according to him, they were protected by the international laws.
He therefore called the federal Government to enter into judicial agreement with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to enable her try pirates arrested on the Nigerian waters locally since the nation’s survival depended on the maritime sector.
“Piracy at sea, there is no law that says you shoot pirates at sea, they are even protected and if you catch them, where are you going to prosecute them? No rule of a country applies in international waters. So, how many people have we tried in Nigeria? That is to say if you are caught as pirate in Nigerian waters, they are taking you straight to the International Criminal Court at the Hague for trial.
“So, we should be serious. If we cannot go 200 miles to prosecute anybody, we should have an agreement because our survival is on maritime and therefore we must do everything to secure it. A serious country that realizes that the survival of the country depends on its maritime activities will take a very strong position on security on its water”, he said.
While decrying the effect of piracy on the Nigerian waters, the Master Mariner recalled that Nigeria used to have about 380 fishing trawlers, many ships anchoring off the nation’s waters for logistics support and for port of refuge but regretted that all that were in past as Nigeria now had less than 80 trawlers on its waters as a result of piracy.
He said,” Then when your water is not safe, those ships will not come. If you have 300 ships as fishing boats, look at the industry associated with fishing trawler business and all of a sudden we have less than 80 or 70 trawlers now on our waters, employment in that sector had been threatened, our food security in terms of protein, fish, snails, shrimps are gone and you allow it to go like that?”
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