Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has perfected plans to use the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) platforms to maintain security in the nation’s waterways.
To this end, the NAF would be deploying its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to assist in the effective surveillance and intelligence report on the activities of criminals within the maritime area to checkmate piracy, oil thieves and smugglers.
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, stated this on Wednesday when the Director-General, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, visited his office to strengthen areas of partnership with the Agency.
Abubakar said that maritime environment is one the most important for Nigeria and that NAF is collaborating with NIMASA to ensure safety and security of the whole sector through air patrols, monitoring and enforcement.
He said: “We have actually been partners and we have been operating together for so many years because the maritime environment is one of the most important environments in this our great nation.
“We are therefore, doing everything humanly possible right now in the maritime environment in the area of maritime patrol air planes, with which we have been working with you before and we are trying to see how we can get more planes. In fact, in our strategic plan, we intend to acquire the CASA 295 Air Craft, which is another maritime patrol aircraft that can be used to handle some of the situations in our maritime environment. But in the meantime, we trying to see how we can get back our second ATR 42 aircraft which is another maritime patrol aircraft. “
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