The Nigerian Navy (NN) Wednesday decried the growing menace of stowaways in Lagos waters.
Consequently, it stated that not less than 75 suspected stowaways were arrested in 9 months on Lagos waters.
The Navy said the NN is concerned by the upsurge in cases of stowaways in Nigerian waters when the convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL convention ) defines a stowaway as someone who is secreted on a ship, or in cargo without the consent of the ship-owners or the master or any other responsible person.
The director of Information, NN, Commodore Adams Aliu, in a statement made available to journalist said migration as a stowaway is illegal, dangerous and considered as security threat to ship-owners.
“In line with the strategic directive of the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, the NN deployed advanced Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) equipment to vector Quick Response Teams (QRT) to all parts of Nigeria’s territorial waters and consequently, they apprehended about 75 stowaways from August, 2023 to April 2024.
“During the operations, the QRT carefully extracted the stowaways who had concealed themselves inside the rudder compartment of the vessels and the apprehended stowaways were handed over to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in accordance with the established protocol for further necessary action,” Adams said.