| The US Navy is currently training 21 Nigerian Navy officers and ratings as well as 15 staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on the modalities for securing the nation’s maritime boundary.
According to the Nigerian Navy spokesman, Commodore David Nabaida, the training is being carried out aboard the American Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship – USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44). The specific areas of training are professional development, respond capabilities and infrastructural development. “For the next 11 days, the trainees aboard the landing ship are also expected to undergo practical training as well as sail to Sao Tome and Principe, the Nigerian waters and back to Tema, Ghana. ”The idea is to pull together synergy on how to check the high level of insecurity on African waters. The training is being organised by the United States Naval Forces Africa and its partners under a programme code-named the African Partnership Station (APS),” Nabaida said. Meanwhile, Nigeria is to host a second West African regional maritime security awareness centre in Bonny, Rivers State in the oil producing Niger Delta region. The first centre was earlier established in Lagos. “The regional awareness centre is a communication centre where we can pick up the particulars of all the vessels in Nigerian waterways and be able to decipher where they are sailing, what they are carrying and, if possible, we can send a helicopter to interdict them if necessary,” the Nigerian Navy spokesman said. |
Mar282010