NIMASA Launches Operation Sea Guardian’, Arrests MT HOLMES, MT FUJAIRAH ENERGY, Others Over Cabotage Violations
NIMASA Launches Operation Sea Guardian’, Arrests MT HOLMES, MT FUJAIRAH ENERGY, Others Over Cabotage Violations
By Success Okezie
In a renewed drive to enforce compliance with extant maritime regulations within Nigeria’s territorial waters, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has conducted a targeted enforcement operation code-named Operation Sea Guardian.
The operation, which focused on vessels of interest identified through intelligence and surveillance profiling, led to the arrest and detention of several vessels for various infractions within the Lagos maritime domain. The vessels include MT HOLMES, MT FUJAIRAH ENERGY, JS GRATITUDE and MT BORA.
Sources at the Agency disclosed that some of the vessels that have since regularised their infractions have been released, while others remain under detention pending full compliance.
Operation Sea Guardian was conducted as a follow-up enforcement initiative aimed at strengthening regulatory compliance, verifying cabotage obligations, assessing surcharge and levy compliance, and ensuring adherence to all applicable maritime regulations.
The exercise saw the deployment of the Deep Blue Project assets to track, board, inspect and verify the operational status of vessels identified through intelligence reports and compliance indicators. This was achieved through effective inter-agency collaboration involving NIMASA enforcement personnel, the Nigerian Navy, the Maritime Guard Command and C4i intelligence operatives.
Through the intelligence-driven process, vessels assessed as having a high likelihood of defaulting on cabotage obligations were identified and prioritized for further scrutiny. These vessels were subsequently incorporated into a broader Target Bank that was established during the first phase of the enforcement operation.
The updated Target Bank provides a consolidated repository of vessels of interest and serves as the primary reference for planning and executing enforcement activities, ensuring that operational resources are focused on high-risk targets.
Reacting to the development, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, emphasized that such enforcement operations will be more frequent, warning that defaulting operators will face the full wrath of the law.
According to him, “We had earlier served notice of enhanced enforcement of indigenous participation in our coastal and inland trade and this is exactly what we are doing. It is therefore in the interest of operators to ensure total compliance because defaulters will be visited with stiff sanctions in line with the law.”
It will be recalled that NIMASA had on August 26, 2026, issued a Marine Notice pursuant to its statutory mandate to promote the development of indigenous capacity in international and coastal shipping trade. In the notice to concerned stakeholders, the Agency clearly restated the conditions for engaging in cabotage trade and warned that “any vessel, company, operator, charterer or other stakeholder found to be in breach of the Cabotage Act or any other applicable cabotage requirement shall be subject to appropriate enforcement action by the Agency in accordance with the law, without further recourse to violators.”
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