There are strong indications that shipping companies might drop the collection of war risk insurance on West African bound cargoes as a result of the successes recorded by Nigeria in criminalising piracy and sea robbery through the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) ACT.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, disclosed this Tuesday while addressing the 2nd Edition of the Nigeria Admiralty Law Colloquium hosted by NIMASA in collaboration with the Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in Lagos.
He said following the successes recorded by Nigeria in criminalising piracy and sea crimes through the SPOMO Act, other West African countries located along the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) are now using the act as a model in their Admiralty matters.
The NIMASA DG stated that victories in the courts have rippled across Nigerian waters and helped reduce piracy to a 27-year low.
Speaking earlier, the Director-General of NIALS, Professor Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan, stated that piracy issues have gone down tremendously in the GoG in 2021.