Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4i) centre has revealed 1,723 vessels engaged in dark activities such as illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, oil theft and dumping of harmful waste in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ) in one year.

According to the C4i centre, the illegal activites also include turning off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) between January 2024 and January 2025.

The C4i centre, a critical component of the Deep Blue project and domiciled within NIMASA, operates with contributions from various security agencies, including the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Police, and the Department of State Services.

The supervisor of the C4i operation centre, Abdulrasak Lawal said during an oversight visit by the House Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration to the Nigerian Maritime Resource Development Centre (NMRDC) in Lagos.

He noted that the system tracked the history of vessels, including their voyages and flags any questionable activities for further investigation. These activities, he said, include sharp practices and the deliberate switching off of the AIS among others.

Lawal stressed that some of the vessels uncovered were suspected to have been engaged in illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, oil theft and dumping of harmful waste in the nation’s waters.

He said: “These vessels, when they sail into our waters, turn off their transmission, and once they do that, you are not able to track them. Once you are unable to track vessels operating on your waters, there are so many reasons associated with it.”