Confusion as Navy commissions parallel monitoring system to tame oil theft, piracy
Barely seven months after the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) commissioned the Command, Control, Communication & Intelligence System (CCCIS), a digital platform to drive surveillance along the over 86,000 skm of the nation’s territorial waters in Lagos, the Nigerian navy Monday did the same thing in Calabar, Cross River State.
It would be recalled that on Friday, July 22, 2016, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi personally switched on the platform in the presence of other dignitaries as the event served as the first official event of the new managing director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Usman.
He said the scheme will help monitor the movement of every vessel within the circumference of the nation’s maritime space and detect piracy plus oil theft.
This was apparently what was duplicated Monday at the Calabar naval base at a time the federal government is campaigning against duplication of scare resources.
The National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno, while commissioning the project called Nigerian Security Element Project 2 (NICEP) yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State said: “It is an attestation that the Federal Government is determined to stop illegalities in our waterways.”
Addressing newsmen, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete Ekwe Ibas noted that “The need for this infrastructure became expedient because of high rate of crime at sea, and the decision to implement the ‘Falcon Eye’ system is to present detailed picture of Nigeria’s maritime domain.”
He revealed that the new platform is the third having commissioned two others in Niger Delta and another place before now.
Also, elated Governor Ben Ayade, thanked the government and the Navy for the project, saying “Cross River has a maritime boundary that is critical to our survival and security is very important to us as this project is expected to cover 200 nautical miles.”
Explaining more on the imports of the scheme, the Project manager, Mr. Gerald Levy, an Israeli said the digital platform will detect and successfully track any vessel within the radius of the maritime space of the country and will enable the Nigerian navy or any relevant government agency to move into action to save any kind of critical situation from time to time.
He advised the Nigerian navy to work out a maintenance structure to avoid crashing or default.
