A renowned prosecutor from Ghana, Kodjo Gnambi Garba, has alleged that pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea (GOG) are mainly carried out by criminal gangs from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Garba noted that pirates usually carry out their maritime criminal activities with sophisticated speed boats to raid commercial vessels offshore and kidnap their crew for ransom.
He spoke to newsmen shortly after seven Nigerians, two Togolese and one Ghanaian were jailed for 20 and 12 years respectively for attempting to hijack a ship along the Togolese waterways.
Garba said those criminal pirates involved in the ship hijack would be punished accordingly.
“People should understand that piracy and armed robbery at sea will be punished for these sea offences; we will be uncompromising”, he vowed. 
Garba who said the criminals went on trial for maritime piracy and willful violence, accused the group of attacking the tanker G-DONA 1 during the night of May 11, 2019.
Recall that the Gulf of Guinea, which stretches along 5,700 kilometres of coastline, accounted for 130 of the 135 kidnappings of seafarers recorded worldwide in 2020, according to a recent report by the International Maritime Bureau.
It was the first time pirates were tried in Togo, one of the West African countries with coastline on the Gulf of Guinea, a major trading route which now accounts for most of the world’s abductions of commercial crew by pirates.
A group of shippers and trade companies in the international maritime sector had signed a declaration in May, calling for the creation of a coalition to put an end to piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

By: Chinedu Wosu