Armed Patrol Boats For Nigerian Navy

The Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority, Engr. Omar Suleiman, in his bid to combat the challenges of piracy, Ports crimes and to maintain adequate security at seaports has promised to provide armed patrol boats for the Nigerian Navy.

The head of Security of Nigerian Ports Authority, Lt. Col. Tahir disclosed this while addressing the heads of security department from various ports locations at their quarterly security meeting in Lagos recently.

According to Tahir, despite the presence of other security agencies at the ports, security lapses are always blamed on NPA security.

He said the Managing Director of NPA, has provided three patrol boats for water front security at the Western ports and that a similar number will soon be provided for the Eastern ports.

According to him, 20 patrol vehicles will soon be provided for all port locations. He pointed out that despite the security situation in the country, none has been identified to have come through any of the ports.

Representative of the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Ms. Egharevba, Capt. Ebubeogu commended the NPA security for the quality of security measures at the headquarters in spite of the on-going renovations. Capt. Ebubeogu also appraised the security of NPA as their performance since the 11 September, 2011 USA incident, and pleaded with the security personnel to always adopt preventive measures.

The assistant Commissioner of police of the Port Authority Police Command, PAPC, Area Commander Western Ports, Mr. Innocent Ekweozor assured the security department of maximum cooperation in the task of making the ports crime free.

He said the port police is ever ready to combat terrorism.

—Moses Falobi