The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary, Mr Boris Johnson, on Thursday in Lagos said that a lot of the UK’s oil came through the Nigerian Waters.
The Foreign Secretary made the disclosure when he visited the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Unity at Naval Dockyard Limited in Victoria Island, Lagos.
“I congratulate the Nigerian Navy for what it is doing to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
“We in the U.K are very proud to offer assistance to the navy to become even better in tackling piracy.
“A lot of our oil in the U.K comes through this water so it is very important that they are tackling this problem of piracy,” he said.
The Chief of Trainings and Operation, Rear Adm. Fergusson Bobai, who represented the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Adm. Ibok Ibas, said the visit was to further strengthen the existence bilateral relations between the two countries.
“The age-long relationship between Nigeria and the U.K dates back before independence. As a matter of fact we got independence from them.
“They helped us to put up the Nigerian Navy and ever since they have been helping us in terms of capacity building.
“So today’s visit of the foreign Secretary is a very clear testimony of the long military relationship between UK and Nigeria,” he said.
The CNS said the Britain had in many years, been giving the navy training assistance.
He added that it was not out of place that they see first-hand, the military assistance they have been giving to the nation.
“We also have the British training assistance team in Nigeria over some years and they have been training us in so many facets.’’
He said that the visit would further boost training of the navy on the fight against piracy and other maritime crimes in the Gulf of Guinea in particular.
He said there were British personnel in Nigeria for three days specifically to conduct trainings on board NNS Unity that had to do with fire fighting and damage control.
“So the cooperation between the two countries is strong,” he said. (NAN)
