The Chief of the Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo has ordered 24-hour intelligence driven patrols of the maritime environment to deny criminals the opportunity to carryout their illegality within the Gulf of Guinea.
This, the CNS said, was to deny foreign shipping companies from re-introducing war risk insurance premiums on vessels coming to the region.
Gambo spoke at the Headquarters, Naval Doctrine Command at Bonny Camp, Victoria Island on Tuesday evening where he inaugurated the newly refurbished office complexes, the first since its establishment 32-years-ago.
Speaking after unveiling the projects, Gambo said there were speculations that some Gulf of Guinea countries were being reconsidered to be tagged with the War Risk Premium due to recent piracy related incidences.
He said sustained intelligence led round-the-clock patrols would therefore, ensure that criminals trying to spoil the feat achieved by the Nigerian Navy since 2022 which led to the de-listing of the Gulf of Guinea from International Maritime Bureau’s, IMB, piracy high risk
zones, were not allowed a breather.
He explained further that the feat led to the removal of war risk insurance to ships coming to the country, leading to reduction in insurance premiums paid by importers on ships coming to Nigerian-comtrolled waters from 5,000 dollars to about 960 dollars per shipment.
