By Godwin Oritse
THE Nigerian Navy has warned the media against carrying the international piracy reports on Nigeria as credible news saying that, “Most of these are manipulated for their economic gains.’’
Speaking at the third Ministerial stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, Rear Admiral Oladele Daji, said that these reports hurt businesses in Nigeria when they are published.
Daji also said that Nigerian ports are the most visited ports in the entire West African region adding that
He explained that petty thieves that board vessels at the port to steal piracy reports from the Nigerian Navy and other reporting authorities in Nigeria were at variance with what is given by some international bodies.phones and other small items are recorded as pirate attacks noting that piracy only happen at the sea and not at ports.
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He said: “The piracy report that is being bandied in the media does not translate to what is happening on the ground.
“And you heard in the presentation that in the entire Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Guinea covers from Senegal up to Angola. Nigerian ports are the most visited ports yet these people manipulate the issue of piracy to suit their economic gains.
“We have incidences of boys who go on board to steal things like phones and they tag things like this as piracy. For goodness sake, piracy happens on the high sea.
“The data that we have which is authoritative even from other agencies corroborated by the Nigerian Navy shows that the data is on the decline.
“But because of their pecuniary interest, what do I mean by that, when you hype this issue of piracy, the cost of freight and insurance goes up and this is what people who do not wish us well have been doing to manipulate figures on reported cases of piracy on Nigerian waters