The Nigerian Navy claimed that in order to combat maritime crimes and uphold security, which is its primary responsibility, it has increased its surveillance, patrols, and intelligence collecting on the waterways.
Vice Adm. Emmanuel Ogalla, the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), made this claim in a press conference shortly after visiting NNS Jubilee’s facilities on Wednesday in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State.
“We will increase our patrols and presence in the waterways and sea. To be able to do that, we are already working to acquire new platforms.
“We’re also going to improve our capacity for intelligence gathering, which will enable us to better target our patrols, reduce costs, and maximize efficiency.
“We have been doing this for a while, and we’ll step up our efforts in this direction. In order to ensure that we have complete coverage of our backwaters, we will increase our monitoring capabilities to this amount, Ogalla stated.
Earlier, the CNS paid Governor Umo Eno a courtesy call and stated that the state was still essential to the operation of the Nigerian Navy in both the military and law enforcement spheres.
Ogalla commended the state government’s support for the naval facilities at Esene, the donation of a girls’ school in Onna, the provision of land for the expansion of the school at Uta Ewa, and other contributions to the NNS Jubilee.