The Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola, recently claimed that Nigeria’s territorial waterways recorded zero piracy attacks in the last three years.
He disclosed this in a short video teaser shared in the public WhatsApp channel managed by the Nigerian presidency under the name “StateHouse NG (The Aso Villa)” on May 24, 2025.
The 74-second video teaser was also posted by the Nigerian presidency on its official X account and YouTube channel same day as seen here and here. The full interview is expected to be released to the public anytime soon.
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The caption accompanying the teaser in the WhatsApp channel reads:
“”Zero Piracy in Nigeria’s Waters in 3 years?”
“In this short clip from an upcoming episode of Unfiltered: The Big Interview, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), makes a bold declaration: Nigeria has not recorded a single case of piracy in its territorial waters. It is now one of the safest in the world.
“Hosted by Otega ‘The Tiger’ Ogra, this episode dives into Nigeria’s maritime security gains, the Blue Economy vision, and NIMASA’s role in positioning Nigeria as a secure shipping hub in Africa.
“Watch, share, and join the conversation on how maritime security reforms are reshaping Nigeria’s global image.”
The transcripts of the video teaser also read:
“Nigeria’s territorial water had been at peace. For the past three years, there had been no single piracy. The US Coast Guard went on inspection of all our ports, jetties, critical installations in Nigeria and said everything that they inspected have given them a summary to say that Nigeria inland waterways, coastal waterways is one of the safest in the whole world. NIMASA has repositioned itself take a bet on us and I can assure you this is a lottery that you will not lose. You will win,” Dr. Mobereola stated in the footage.
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Recall that the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on March 12, 2024 announced the appointment of Dr. Mobereola as NIMASA DG for a renewable four-year term in a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, the then presidential spokesperson.
CLAIM
There has been no single piracy in Nigeria’s waterways in the last three years.
THE FINDINGS
Check by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, as multiple reports from credible media outlets and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) indicated that there were at least three pirate attacks between May 2022 and May 2025.
In the context of Nigeria’s coastal waters, piracy refers to criminal acts committed at sea, especially against ships, boats, crew members or offshore installations. Article 101 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea says piracy consists of the following acts:
(a). 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, and directed: (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; (ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
(b). any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;
(c). any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).
These acts include hijacking vessels, kidnapping crew or passengers for ransom, robbery of goods, fuel, or cash onboard and attacks on oil infrastructure that usually occur in the Gulf of Guinea, which includes Nigeria’s maritime zone, one of the global piracy hotspots until recently, though a 2022 report by TheCable noted that pirate incidents had declined that year.
To verify the accuracy of the claim, our researcher reviewed piracy reports from May 2022 till May 2025 and found at least three piracy attacks reported by credible media outlets and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Although media reports as seen here, here and here confirmed that 2022 was pirate-free for the Nigerian maritime, there were two confirmed cases in 2023.
For instance, on June 5, 2023, there was a suspected pirate attack on two passenger boats along the waterways of Rivers State that reportedly left one female passenger feared dead. The incident occurred as the boats were enroute from Abonema to Kula, both in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of the state, Punch reported. According to maritime union sources, each vessel was carrying around 12 passengers when the assailants struck mid-journey. In an attempt to evade capture, many of the passengers reportedly jumped into the river.
Also, The Africa Report reported that on June 26, 2023, no fewer than 8 staff of MRS Oil Nigeria Plc were abducted while they boarded a boat at a jetty on Lagos water. The Nigerian police spokesperson for Lagos Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, also confirmed the incident in a Vanguard report.
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Additionally, our researcher found a comprehensive monthly maritime incident report published by Priavo Security in June 2023, which documented the above incidents plus an additional one it noted was unconfirmed as at the time of that publication.
Further checks through the IMO piracy reports in 2024 didn’t yield any result. However, our researcher found a case of piracy in 2025. According to the global maritime body, the incident occurred in Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria, when duty crew members aboard a berthed tanker observed four unauthorized individuals on the vessel. Upon being noticed, the intruders fled the scene without taking anything. The incident was subsequently reported to the port authorities.
THE VERDICT
The claim that there was no single piracy in Nigeria’s waterways in the last three years is FALSE; there were at least three recorded pirate incidents between May 2022 and May 2025.
