The Commandant of Nigerian Merchant Navy Corps, Benson Allen Edema this weekend raised alarm over the continued importation of illegal arms and ammunition into the country through the high seas from other neighboring countries, stating that it was not only responsible for the rising crime rate in Nigeria but capable of destabilizing our economy.
Commander Edema who spoke to reporters Friday at his base in Race Course, Lagos lamented that some foreign ships have been allowed for so long to continue embarking on extensive exchange of arms and ammunition for crude oil in the name of bunkering in our high seas and vowed that personnel of the Merchant Navy are poised to stop the nefarious activities of all those involved in the unpatriotic act. According to him, �it has become absolutely necessary and very timely to call the attention of President Musa Yar�Adua to the criminal activities of some unpatriotic Nigerians and their foreign accomplices on our high seas because not only that the economy of the country will soon collapse but crime rate will definitely continue to be on the rise if positive and immediate steps were not taken to check them.
�I am talking about the continued importation of illegal arms and ammunition into the country through the sea by these unpatriotic individuals from our neighboring countries like Benin, Togo, Ghana and even Cameroun using fishing trawlers. We have discovered that these Seamen have been paid to convey illegal arms and ammunition into the country using fishing trawlers and we are worried at the rate at which they perfect this unpatriotic and criminal act against our nation