A Study on Port State Control to Combat Maritime Piracy in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters

Combating piracy through the instrumentality of the port state control is prudent and effective because it is a preventive mechanism that discourages any form of irregularity or illegality on board a ship and within a port and its environ. Further, port state control offers a veritable platform for implementing security instruments that not only prevents piracy, but contributes in monitoring, arresting, prosecuting and punishing pirates. This line of action is apt considering the fact that majority of piratical attacks in Nigeria, which are essentially targeted at oil tankers, take place in territorial waters of the country due to the oil and gas exploration, the mainstay of the country’s economy. Piracy basically consists of any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft in accordance with the Article 101 of the United Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. However, the author suggests the countermeasures against unlawful acts regarded as piracy, because these acts are happening in the territorial waters and extending to high seas in most areas including Nigerian coastal waters. Thus, the paper argues that effective use of port state control is key to curbing piracy in Nigeria.