By Taiye Odewale Abuja
To combat Sea Piracy in the country and secure the nation’s territorial waters, the Senate yesterday set in motion the process that will put stringent laws including death sentence on piracy offenders. The Upper legislative chamber also passed for second reading, several other bills meant for addressing emerging realities in some vital sectors of the country.
This i9nclude the bill for an Act to repeal the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 2004 and re-enact the Arbitration and Conciliation 2017 for the modern regulation of Arbitration and Conciliation processes sponsored by Senator Andy Uba. According to Senator Effiong in his lead debate on the bill, Nigeria is presently losing about $1.5billion a month due to sea piracy, armed robberies at sea, smuggling and fuel supply fraud on sea.
He said Nigeria being an import dependent economy must do more to guarantee the safe arrival of goods at her shores, adding that it was, therefore, important and urgent that a law be put in place that will discourage and suppress sea piracy and punish those who engage in it.
He added that the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), in its report said while the incidence of sea piracy was dropping in other territorial waters, it was rather increasing in the country and the Gulf of Guinea.
He stressed that the observation by IMB was a clarion call on the Senate to make laws that would make potential pirates to weigh the enormity of the punishment that will be meted to them, if caught. In their contributions, Senators Murtala Nyako, Shehu Sani, James Manager, Godswil Akpabio and Abdullahi Adamu emphasised the need to domesticate international laws on piracy to help tackle the problem which had continue to affect economic activities and security.
