The high rate of unemployment among youths in the coastal areas has been identified as the major cause of piracy along the country’s water ways.

Ogene Akpiri, a seafarer on board M/V Joan, who also was a victim of pirate attack recently, made the observation during an interview with The Tide at Onne Port on Saturday.

According to him, the practice of piracy is still rampant because there are no jobs for able-bodied young men especially those in the coastal areas, so they now find escape in piracy.

“I can only tie it to lack of job opportunities for citizens and that increases the propensity /or their doing unscrupulous things to survive”.

He noted that there are many young men 32, 34, 38 who can’t marry because they have no jobs and they look at their lives no hope, so the only alternative is to look for other means of survival.

“Lets not pretend that we have a bunch of criminals who are pirates out there, but most of them would have been better of if opportunities were created for them. I am not saying it is a good reason to go into piracy. Children are being chimed out of the university every day with no job opportunities, what we are saying is creating employment opportunities and everybody will be happy. If you have vibrant maritime industry you will not have enough people to pollute the industry and that will encourage all those pirates who have become expert mariners to cue in, in the industry as professionals”.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho, had in one of his public statements, said that what is happening in the Nigerian waters can not be defined as piracy in the real sense of it. He added that it is the illegal activities of ship owners off Nigerian waters and porous Nigeria waters that attract criminals to them who waylay them and steal cash and valuables and go away without asking for ransom. He also said the criminalities against them may not be unconnected with the militancy in the Niger Delta region.

He expressed confidence that piracy on any form of criminality against ships in the Nigeria waters would drastically reduce this year in view of the peace which is returning to the region.

He also said that some of the piracy incidents attributed to Nigeria were carried out in the waters of other west/central Africa countries, adding that his fear had always been that criminality may have been the handiwork of foreigners, who were serving the interest of foreign ship owners who want to continue to charge discriminatory tariff on Nigerian bound cargo because they have no competition from Nigerian entrepreneurs.

He said, however, that government is determined to rip the criminal act in the bud this year, saying safety of navigation and security of life and property in the Nigerian waters and the ports is of prime importance to government this year.