FROM the Captain of a visiting French Navy Ship yesterday came a denial that the visit was not to protect French oil installations in Nigeria, but to consolidate technical links.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Commodore Thierry Ruffier, who arrived in Lagos aboard the ship BAP Jules Verne, said at a news conference in Lagos that protection of the oil firms was not part of the ship’s responsibility.
Ruffier is in Nigeria with 269 other crew members, among them 28 female.
“We are in Nigeria in furtherance of the technical links France has with countries of the Gulf of Guinea, including Senegal, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana,” he said.
He added that the visit was in response to an invitation by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua when he visited France last year, adding that the Nigerian Navy and its French counterpart had technical links.
He said that the crew was in the Gulf of Guinea to study the operations of the navies there for more co-operation and possible assistance.
“Members of the Nigerian Navy Engineering Corps will board the ship to share experiences on maintenance of ships for cross-pollination of ideas. We have also come to learn from the Nigerian Navy being the largest in Africa. Our visit coinciding with the country’s independence anniversary celebration is fulfilling,” Ruffier said.
BAP Jules Verne, which left Toulouse, France in July, arrived in Nigeria on September 27, 2008.
The ship is expected to leave Nigeria tomorrow en-route Senegal.
The maintenance vessel was in Nigeria three years ago in furtherance of co-operation with the navies in the Gulf of Guinea.
The U.S. and British navies had paid similar visits to the Nigerian Navy.