Vice admiral Awal Gambo of Nigerian Navy with Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, Chief of the Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces.
To promote peace, stability and economic prosperity in the sub-region, Ghana and Nigeria navies have pledged their commitment to work together in fighting piracy, robbery and kidnapping against ships and other maritime activities in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).
At an official signing ceremony of a communiqué between the two navies on maritme security of the Gulf of Guinea, Vice Admiral Awal Zubenu Gambo, the Chief of Naval Staff of the Nigeria Navy said Ghana and Nigeria have key roles to play to combat maritime insecurity on the Gulf of Guinea.
He said the security burden on the GoG lies on the shoulders of the two countries to ensure that the maritime space of GoG is safe, and secure for maritime activities to strive.
“In view of that the heads of Ghana and Nigeria met and in that meeting the two Chiefs of Naval Staff were directed to recommend the way forward in ensuring that maritime security is enhanced on the Gulf of Guinea.
He admitted that after series of technical meetings held together, they came up with a communique that both navies will work with to ensure prosperity and well-being of the two countries.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, in an address, recounted how Ghana and Nigerian navies have enjoyed lots of collaborations.
He particularly expressed his gratitude to Nigeria Navy for the support they have given Ghana Navy in building the capacity of personnel for the Special Boat Squadron.
“You have also trained a number of our personnel in Nigeria and the performance of the SVS has been marvellous. They performed with the Army and Airforce counterparts and the level of training has been acclaimed by all as outstanding,” he said.
The CDS also requested for more assistance in the area of recommendations in the establishment of a Special Boat Service Training School in Ghana.
Vice Admiral Amoama expressed his hope that the framework adopted in the communiqué would support the Yaounda architecture of addressing the maritime security challenges in the Gulf of Guinea.
The framework signed by Ghana and Nigeria navies aimed at addressing criminal activities on African territorial waters.
In the signed communiqué, both countries have pledged to adopt the directors of operations of both navies as focal points for real time sharing of information to enhance combats of maritime crimes in the region.
They will also collaborate in capacity building of personnel in the area of operating and optimising available maritime domain, and awareness infrastructure domiciled in their respective countries while encouraging national governments to enact anti piracy laws to facilitate and harmonise procedures for arrest, detention and prosecuting of persons and vessels engaged in piracy, and other maritime crimes across the region while working together to draw up a standard operation procedure on what perceive across national maritime boundaries in the region.
They will also liase with national maritime administrational port authorities for the establishment of transit corridors for safe and security passage of ships while considering modalities for the establishment of ECOWAS Naval Taskforce to combat maritime security threats in the sub-region.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey