The Commandant of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Jubilee, Ikot Abasi, Commodore M. K. Unurhiere on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, stated that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC was Nigerian Navy’s preferred partner in its efforts against illegal oil bunkering and vandalization of oil installations in the Niger Delta region.
Commodore Unurhiere made this disclosure while on a courtesy visit to the Uyo Zonal Office of the Commission.
He lauded the Commission’s efforts at ensuring that petroleum/maritime offenders were duly brought to book, and pledged Navy’s continuous support and collaboration with the Commission.
“We greatly appreciate and commend the collaboration between the Navy and the EFCC, both in the past and present and I intend to ensure that we take this synergy a notch higher to achieve more results because the preferred agency is still the EFCC”.
Mr. Alex Ebbah, Deputy Zonal Head, Uyo Office of the EFCC, on behalf of the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, welcomed the visitors and commended the Navy for its efforts at combating economic crimes in the nation’s maritime environment.
“The efforts of the Nigerian Navy in its defense of the nation’s waterways must be highly commended as most of the cases handed over to the Uyo Zonal Office are currently in court and at various stages of prosecution with interim forfeiture orders granted by the court. Many vessels have been forfeited to the federal government both on interim and final forfeiture basis since inception, and we have also recorded a number of convictions in this regard,” Ebbah said.
Officers on the commandant’s entourage included: Lieutenant Commander J. N. Dibia; Lieutenant Gloria Onwuagbaruo; Lieutenant A. G. Ahmodu; SLt. M. K. Onwudinjo; SLt. N. T. Dangusaw and SLt. A. Musa.