There are fresh indications that the IMO is set to prevail on twenty five countries in West and Central Africa on the need to adopt the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, Dryad Global says.
The SPOMO Act, developed by the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), would now enable trial of piracy cases within the African sub-region irrespective of whichever country the crime was committed.
”This indication was given when the Minister of Transportation, Eng Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, received the Secretary General, Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) Dr. Paul Adalikwu at the Ministry. Mu’azu also encouraged the Secretary General, to leverage on MOWCA as a regional body to push for Nigeria’s intent of becoming member of Category C in the IMO.” Dryad noted.
The minister expressed the hope that within 90 days the Ministry will be able to secure accommodation to enable the take off of the Regional Maritime Development Bank .
As informed, on a forthcoming regional meeting scheduled for Abuja in November, 2022, the Secretary General of IMO, Kitack Lim, will seek to prevail on the 25 member States to adopt the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, to enable trial of piracy cases within the MOWCA sub-region irrespective of whichever sub-region the crime was committed.
Earlier, at the maiden edition of the Nigerian Admiralty Law Colloquium organized in Lagos by NIMASA, in collaboration with NIALS, Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, had disclosed that this Act, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2019, is ”producing a better appreciation of Nigeria’s determination to end piracy and sea robbery in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.”
