Oluchi Chibuzor
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has conducted a targeted enforcement operation code named Operation Sea Guardian in order to enforcecompliance with maritime regulations in Nigeria waters.
The operation which focused on vessels of interest identified through intelligence and surveillance profiling led to the arrest and detention of several vessels for nonconformity including MT HOLMES, MT FUJAIRAH ENERGY, JS GRATITUDE, MT BORA within the Lagos maritime domain. Some of the vessels which have regularised their infractions have since been release.
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 applicable maritime regulations. It deployed Deep Blue assets to help track, board, inspect, and verify the operational status of vessels identified through intelligence reports and compliance indicators through effective inter-agency cooperation among NIMASA enforcement personnel, the Nigerian Navy, the Maritime Guard Command and C4i intelligence personnel.
Through this 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 had been established during the first enforcement operation. The updated Target Bank provides a consolidated repository of vessels of interest and serves as the primary reference for planning and executing the enforcement activities, ensuring that operational resources were focused on high-risk targets.
Reacting to the development, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola emphasised that such operations are going to be more frequent and that defaulting operators would 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.”
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 to concerned stakeholders clearly restating 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.”