The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, says the Nigerian army has chased out pirates from the nation’s waters.

Mr Irabor stated this at a briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team (set up to update Nigerians on President Muhammadu Buhari’s security, economy, and anti-corruption agenda).

The Gulf of Guinea had recorded 84 attempted and successful attacks by pirates in 2020, up from 64 in 2019 and 82 in 2018.

However, Mr revealed that Nigeria recorded zero piracy within its waters since December 2020, explaining that the incidents recently reported occurred outside Nigerian waters.

He attributed the success to new security measures put in place by relevant authorities.

“In the last three months or so, there had never been a single case of piracy recorded within Nigerian waters,” said Mr Irabor.

He pointed out, “All the cases reported were outside of the exclusive right of Nigerian waters, and that’s because of the resilience of our maritime forces has led to those bad elements within the maritime domain to shift bases.

“So, I think what you do is perhaps to do more studies to that; those incidents that we witnessed in the last three months were executed outside of Nigerian waters,” he said.

According to him, criminal gangs accessed the Gulf of Guinea. He said the pirates shifted their activities from the Nigerian waters to other areas.

On the ongoing fight against insurgency in the North-East and banditry in the North-West and the North-Central, Irabor dismissed media reports that the fight might last over 10 years or more.

He said based on presidential directives, the insurgency would soon be over as security forces had intensified efforts.