By Godwin Oritse
The Nigerian Navy has warned that the unregulated deployment of unmanned vessels for maritime surveillance could pose serious security risks to the nation’s maritime domain, calling for the development of an appropriate legal framework to regulate their use.
Speaking at the 2026 Lagos International Maritime Week, Rear Admiral Daniel Atapa of the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Department said there was a need to harmonise the various maritime security architectures under a single command to effectively curb the practice.
Atapa also said that while each agency is at liberty to operate its own equipment and systems, inter-agency rivalry often makes it difficult to harmonise the various maritime domain awareness assets for effective coordination and information sharing.
Atapa stated: “There are Maritime Domain Awareness assets with NIMASA, Navy, NPA and the rest. To the extent that there is no regulation or codified framework mandating their use or defining their modus operandi, each agency is at liberty to operate with what it has.
“Also, because of inter-agency rivalry which is silent and which we sometimes do not want to admit exists it becomes difficult to harmonise these Maritime Domain Awareness assets. So, we continue to operate the way we do until there is a regulation that brings everybody together and says, ‘Come together and operate this way.’
“We still make do with what we have. But once there is a regulation, it will provide the framework for harmonising these assets and ensuring better coordination among the agencies.
“On the presence of foreign vessels and navies in the Gulf of Benin, we need to understand that the Gulf is an open sea line of communication.
Most of these foreign navies are from countries with significant shipping activities in the region.
“On the unregulated use of unmanned vessels, as I recommended as part of my prescriptions for addressing the issue, there is currently no regulation, and so everybody operates and does what they deem appropriate’’.
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