Maritime Security and Safety
Tantita Donates 15 Combat-Ready Gun Boats to Nigerian Navy, Army in Major Push to End Oil Theft Crisis
Tantita Donates 15 Combat-Ready Gun Boats to Nigerian Navy, Army in Major Push to End Oil Theft Crisis
Tantita Security Services commissions semi-ballistic vessels built entirely in Nigeria, signalling a new era of indigenous maritime security
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News Correspondent
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers State — In what maritime security analysts are describing as one of the most significant private-sector contributions to Nigeria’s anti-oil theft campaign in recent memory, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited on Thursday formally commissioned and donated 15 semi-ballistic, glass-reinforced gun boats to the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Army, in a colourful but purposeful ceremony held at the Nigerian Navy Shipyard Limited in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The handover, attended by senior military officers, government officials and key stakeholders from Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, marks a bold new chapter in the country’s ongoing effort to curb the haemorrhage of crude oil through theft, illegal bunkering, and the incessant vandalism of oil and gas pipelines — a crisis that has cost Nigeria billions of dollars in lost revenue and environmental damage over the past decade.
The 15 vessels were not imported. They were conceived, designed, and built on Nigerian soil — at the Nigerian Navy Shipyard Limited — under a contract expressly awarded by Tantita Security Services to ensure that local communities, local expertise, and indigenous industry benefit directly from the investment. That decision alone is being applauded as a rare and deliberate act of commitment to the Nigerian Content Act and the broader goal of building domestic industrial capacity.
Purpose-Built for Nigeria’s Waterways
Each of the gun boats is built to what officials described as world-class specifications. Engineered for the demanding and often treacherous terrain of Nigeria’s Niger Delta waterways — a labyrinthine network of creeks, estuaries, and offshore channels that have long served as cover for criminal oil syndicates — the vessels are designed for high-speed patrol, rapid interdiction, and sustained operational deployment.
With a crew capacity of seven per vessel, the boats are equipped to carry armed personnel and the equipment needed for extended waterway surveillance. Their semi-ballistic hull design provides both speed and resilience, while the glass-reinforced construction makes them well-suited to the corrosive saline and freshwater environments of the Delta region.
Eight of the gun boats were allocated to the Nigerian Navy, which operates extensively across the offshore and coastal belts of the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Guinea. The remaining seven were handed to the Nigerian Army, bolstering the riverine capacity of its troops who regularly conduct joint operations in the interior creeks of the Delta states.
A Ceremony Befitting the Moment
The handover ceremony drew a gathering reflective of the event’s national importance. Representing the Chief of Defence Staff as Special Guest of Honour was Major General E. E. Emekah, who presided over the official reception of the vessels on behalf of the Nigerian military.
Also in attendance were General Efe Edafioghor (rtd), who represented Tantita’s Managing Director, High Chief Engr. Kestin Pondi; Ms. Daisy Jaja; and Engr. Trevor Chuks Illide, among several other senior officials, military personnel, and industry stakeholders.
The Superintendent of the Naval Shipyard, Rear Admiral I. Ubani, was particularly effusive in his commendation of Tantita, noting that the partnership represents far more than a donation of equipment. According to him, it is a validation of Nigeria’s capacity to produce military-grade maritime assets domestically — a point of pride not just for the Navy, but for the entire Nigerian shipbuilding industry.
“This project is a boost for indigenous shipbuilding and local content development,” Rear Admiral Ubani stated, acknowledging that the successful completion and commissioning of 15 operational gun boats entirely within Nigeria sends a powerful message to the region and beyond.
Tantita Speaks: Protecting a National Asset
Delivering remarks on behalf of Tantita’s Managing Director, High Chief Engr. Kestin Pondi, General Efe Edafioghor (rtd) offered context for why the company chose to make this investment at this time.
He described the donation as a direct expression of Tantita Security Services’ philosophy — that private security companies operating in Nigeria’s oil sector carry a responsibility that goes beyond their contractual mandates. Protecting the country’s oil and gas infrastructure, he argued, is a national duty, and Tantita has chosen to fulfil that duty not merely with words, but with tangible assets.
“These boats reflect our continued commitment to securing Nigeria’s critical oil and gas infrastructure,” General Edafioghor said. “We did not import them. We built them here, in Nigeria, by Nigerians. That was a deliberate choice.”
He added that by awarding the construction contract to the Nigerian Navy Shipyard, Tantita ensured that skilled Nigerian engineers, welders, naval architects, and technicians were the ones who brought these vessels to life — generating employment, building technical knowledge, and demonstrating what Nigerian industry is capable of when given the opportunity.
Military Receives the Boats with Gratitude and Intent
Receiving the vessels on behalf of the Nigerian military, Major General Emekah expressed sincere appreciation to Tantita Security Services for what he described as a timely and strategically important contribution.
He assured all present that the boats would not be allowed to sit idle. They would be immediately integrated into ongoing security operations in the Niger Delta, deployed alongside existing assets to strengthen the capacity of both the Navy and Army to monitor, patrol, and where necessary, intercept criminal activities across Nigeria’s vast network of waterways.
The Major General’s remarks underscored the military’s awareness of how critical the maritime domain is to national security. Nigeria loses an estimated hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil per day to theft and pipeline vandalism — losses that directly undermine government revenues, reduce foreign exchange earnings, and damage the livelihoods of millions of Nigerians.
The Broader Picture: Tantita’s Growing Role in Maritime Security
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, which was founded with a specific mandate to provide security for oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta, has in recent years emerged as one of the most prominent private security actors in the region. The company operates in close collaboration with the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Army, and other security agencies, combining intelligence-driven operations with physical patrols and community engagement strategies.
The donation of 15 gun boats is the latest in a series of investments and partnerships through which Tantita has sought to complement the efforts of state security agencies — supplementing their capacity at a time when resources are stretched and criminal networks have grown increasingly sophisticated.
Industry observers note that by building the vessels locally, Tantita has also made a statement about the future direction of maritime security in Nigeria: one in which domestic industry plays a central role in equipping the country’s security forces, reducing dependence on imported assets, and keeping economic value within Nigerian borders.
Inspection and Looking Ahead
The ceremony concluded with a formal inspection of the newly commissioned gun boats, with senior military and Tantita officials walking the dock at the Nigerian Navy Shipyard to observe the vessels up close. The inspection served as a visible affirmation of the quality and readiness of the boats, and drew quiet nods of approval from those present who understand what it takes to produce capable, seaworthy vessels in Nigeria.
As the boats prepare to be formally deployed across the waterways of the Niger Delta and beyond, the hope — shared by Tantita, the military, and the communities that live along those waterways — is that their presence will deal a decisive blow to the criminal networks that have for too long treated Nigeria’s oil wealth as their personal resource.
For now, the commissioning of these 15 gun boats stands as evidence that the partnership between Nigeria’s private security sector and its military is deepening, and that the fight to protect the country’s waterways and its oil infrastructure is far from over.
Waterways News will continue to follow developments in Nigeria’s maritime security landscape.
Maritime Security and Safety
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
International shipping lines operating in Nigeria have welcomed the United States Coast Guard’s (USCG) decision to remove the 12-year Condition of Entry (CoE) restriction on vessels arriving in the US from Nigerian ports, describing it as evidence of the country’s improved maritime security standing.
The CoE, in force since 2014, subjected vessels that had called at Nigerian ports within their previous five port calls to additional security checks and enhanced scrutiny before US entry. Its removal ends over a decade of extra costs, delays and paperwork for operators trading between Nigeria and the US.
Maersk’s Terminal Planning Lead for West Africa, Srijesh Subramanian, said the move would benefit both importers and exporters given the volume of Nigerian trade with the US, and would likely embolden shipping companies to expand their services. He read the decision as a signal that Nigeria now looks like a safer environment than previously perceived.
Ocean Network Express’s Nigeria Director, Stefan Pedersen, credited the outcome to NIMASA’s sustained work, though he noted ONE has no direct US sailings and so is not directly affected. He expects the removal of restrictions to still ease trade generally for lines that do run direct US services.
Pacific International Lines’ Managing Director, Ugo Opiah, framed the lifting as an image win: qualifying for US standards marks a country as a high-integrity player, and Nigeria’s decade-plus wait to clear the bar signals real improvement in maritime security compliance.
Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Vessel and Terminal Coordinator, Adesina Omoparuwa, said the restriction had forced MSC into trans-shipment routings rather than direct Nigeria–US calls, the same workaround the line uses for China, and that direct service should now become possible, opening opportunities for US-based businesses to trade directly through Nigerian ports.
Nigeria Watch
The CoE’s removal is the payoff of a process that has run since at least 2019, when the USCG first proposed a phased, bi-annual assessment track with NIMASA to bring Nigerian ports into full ISPS Code compliance. The agency conducted four full assessments of Nigeria’s port facilities and national maritime security framework between March 2024 and April 2026 before signing off.
Marine and Blue Economy Minister Dr Adegboyega Oyetola has called the lift a major milestone, crediting sustained collaboration between the Ministry, NIMASA, port and terminal operators and shipping lines. Washington has echoed that framing: in a letter dated August 26, 2026, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia congratulated Oyetola on the reform, tying it to Nigeria’s anti-terrorism and port-security compliance record.
For Nigeria’s port competitiveness push, running alongside the NPERA Act’s commencement and the deep seaport approvals at Badagry, Olokola, Ibom and Bakassi, the CoE exit removes one of the more persistent reputational drags on the sector: an active US security flag that shipping lines, insurers and freight forwarders had priced into Nigeria-bound trade for over a decade. Whether the savings in inspection time, insurance and freight cost are passed down to Nigerian shippers, or absorbed by the lines quoted here, is the next thing worth watching.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
Navy Renews Call for Special Maritime Courts, But Nigeria’s Justice Gap Persists
By Raymond Gold
The Nigerian Navy has again pressed for the creation of dedicated courts to try maritime offences, arguing that Nigeria’s regular judicial process is too slow to match the pace at which security agencies are arresting suspects at sea.
The renewed push came last week in Lagos at the 4th Ehingbeti Blue Economy Hub, on a panel built around strengthening the regulatory and justice frameworks needed to secure Nigeria’s blue economy. The session drew senior officers from the Navy and Marine Police, alongside a retired flag officer and other maritime stakeholders.
Rear Admiral A. A. Mustapha, Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, represented on the panel by his Chief Staff Officer, Rear Admiral N. C. Ekwom, said Nigeria is working toward an integrated maritime security strategy that would fold the country’s various security agencies into one common operating picture. He pointed to the Navy’s Falcon Eye system and the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability System as the technological backbone of that effort, noting that artificial intelligence is increasingly being layered onto surveillance operations.
Mustapha’s team acknowledged a persistent integration problem: the Navy’s Maritime Command and Control Centre reserves roughly 15 seats for personnel from partner agencies, but most command centres nationwide still operate in isolation. He linked the gap to a wider unfamiliarity with the sector across government, describing it as “maritime blindness”, a failure, in his words, to recognise the maritime domain’s importance to national development.
It was retired Rear Admiral Olanrewaju Beckley, however, who delivered the panel’s sharpest message: that slow prosecutions, not weak detection, may be the Navy’s biggest handicap. Beckley ran through the familiar list of threats I including illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, kidnapping for ransom, illegal refineries, terrorism and smuggling, and said the Navy’s “detect, arrest and prosecute” model breaks down at the final stage. Suspects and their vessels can sit in detention for extended periods awaiting trial, he said, a delay that risks suspects walking free and undermines the deterrent effect of every arrest made at sea.
His prescription was the same one Nigerian naval officers have floated repeatedly over the past decade: dedicated maritime courts that could fast-track case determination and cut down on prolonged detention without trial. Beckley also called for heavier government investment in surveillance assets such as vessels, drones and manned aerial platforms, arguing that the size of Nigeria’s maritime estate demands a security budget to match.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police Okunade Ronke Nurat, represented by CSP Olalekan Faniyi, described the working relationship between the Marine Police and the Navy as cordial, with joint patrols proceeding without friction, though she conceded there was room for deeper collaboration. Other panellists urged that any security-first approach to the blue economy be matched with investment in the coastal and riverine communities that live alongside Nigeria’s waterways.
The session’s recommendations, taken together, called for tighter integration among maritime security agencies, wider surveillance deployment, closer Navy–Marine Police cooperation, more security-asset funding, specialised judicial mechanisms for maritime crimes, and stronger economic support for coastal communities.
Nigeria Watch
Beckley’s plea will sound familiar to anyone who has followed this file. The Navy has asked for special maritime courts under at least three different Chiefs of Naval Staff over the past decade — through a Senate committee proposal in 2016, a direct appeal from the naval leadership in 2021, and now this latest call in 2026 — with no legislation to show for it. NIMASA’s leadership has separately lobbied the judiciary through its annual Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges, seeking faster case turnaround for the same reason Beckley cited: arrests that don’t stick because prosecutions crawl.
What has changed since 2020 is the legal toolkit, not the court structure. The Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act gave prosecutors their first dedicated piracy statute and produced Nigeria’s first SPOMO conviction at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt. But SPOMO cases still route through the same generalist Federal High Court dockets — carrying admiralty, commercial and constitutional matters alongside maritime crime — that Beckley says are the bottleneck. A special court, as envisaged, would need enabling legislation the National Assembly has never passed, whatever the number of naval appeals for it.
For operators represented by cooperatives like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, the stakes in this debate cut both ways. Faster maritime prosecutions would, in principle, mean faster resolution for the vessels and crews the Navy detains, a genuine grievance among small-scale operators who say their boats and livelihoods can be tied up in custody for months over infractions far short of piracy or oil theft.
But any push to tighten enforcement and expand naval surveillance across the inland and coastal waterways will also be watched closely by the same informal operators, who have long argued that security crackdowns too often catch legitimate local transporters in the same net cast for pirates and illegal bunkerers. Whether the next iteration of this proposal survives the National Assembly, or joins its predecessors as a recommendation without a bill, will say much about how seriously Abuja is treating the justice half of its blue economy ambitions.
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