(upper legislative chamber. PhotoCredit: Instagram)
On Thursday, the Senate urged Nigeria’s security forces to seek the unconditional release of fifteen ferry passengers who had been kidnapped by Sea Pirates. Among them were several UTME applicants who were heading from Calabar to Oron to take their university entrance exam.
Because of the deteriorating security situation in the nation, the Senate also urges the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, or JAMB, to set up more examination centers in each state to stop students from traveling outside of their states to take the test.
Senator Ekong Sampson of the APC Akwa Ibom South made a motion that led to the Senate’s resolution.
Speaking about the event, EKONG described how heavily armed pirates ambushed the boat in the middle of the ocean, took control of it, and then drove the passengers away at gunpoint to unidentified locations.
He bemoaned the fact that the crime has increased anxiety and unease throughout the coastal towns, emphasizing how urgently the security authorities must capture the offenders.
Subsequently, the Senate strongly denounced the passengers’ kidnapping and called on the Chief of Naval Staff, the Inspector General of Police, and other relevant security agencies to immediately deploy rescue operations to secure unconditional release of all the abducted victims.
Along with ordering its Committees on Navy, Marine Transport, and National Security and Intelligence to immediately look into the growing wave of maritime insecurity in the Niger Delta waterways, the upper legislative chamber also called for increased surveillance, patrol, and intelligence-gathering operations along the Calabar–Oron waterways and nearby creeks.