Vincent Toritseju
16 January 2019, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Ghana Maritime Authority, GMA, has said that full enforcement of coastal laws can be attributed to the low level of pirate attacks recorded in the Ghanaian waters.
While speaking at the just concluded Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA merit awards and dinner held in Lagos, the Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Mr. Kwame Wusu said that the agency decided to seriously take up some issues that were ignored before now Wusu also said that the agency has been able to accost a lot of vessels that carry out illicit activities on Ghanaian waters.
He explained that the sale of stolen crude oil on the country’s waters has also been checkmated as this has reduced the menace of piracy.
He said “I believe that some of these pirates emerge from bad businesses among people trading in stolen oil and we in Ghana are trying to make sure that we get rid of these people and now many people are not interested in coming to Ghana because we have been pushing and setting the pace and making sure that once vessels get into our waters, my people are on them.
“Even if they are not subject to inspection under the MoU, we go in a different route and make sure that they are able to go on board and we are able to get a lot of them to surrender with wrong documentation and that is what is turning them away from our waters.
Recall that there was an upsurge in the pirate attacks on vessels particularly in and around Nigerian waters in recent times.
