The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in collaboration with the Nigerian Airforce and Nigerian Navy on Thursday, June 5, 2014 successfully rescued a Ghanaian fishing boat from suspected hijackers using its satellite surveillance system.
The vessel, Marine 711 was hijacked off the coast of Ghana and sailed across Togo and Benin Republic to Nigerian waters when the embassy of the Republic of Korea contacted NIMASA to help rescue the vessel as it was owned by a Korean national.
The Ghanaian Fisheries Authority and the operators of the fishing vessel also requested the agencies prompt intervention.
The rescue operation led and coordinated by Capt. Warredi Enisuoh, NIMASA’s Director of Shipping Development resolved the incident within six hours with the use of newly built satellite surveillance system with Cloud Penetrating Radar capabilities.
The rescue team in partnership with the Airforce and Navy employed air and sea patrols using response and reception tactic forcing the hijackers to abort their mission and abscond.
This new technology is run at a 24-hour surveillance centre, with capabilities of detecting boats, ships and objects of predefined cross-section floating on water, it also detects aircraft’s that ditches and floats on the water surface during satellite over with alarm system alerting the operator of intruders into restricted areas.
