Nigeria to acquire more military weapons from Britain – Naval chief

The Federal Government is perfecting arrangement to acquire more naval warships from the United Kingdom.

The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas, who made the disclosure at the weekend when he received the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary, Mr Boris Johnson in Lagos, said both Naval headquarters in Abuja and the British Defence Attaché in Nigeria had met to discuss modalities on how best to achieve it.

The Chief of Naval Staff who spoke through the Chief of Trainings and Operation, Rear Adm. Fergusson Bobai, said the visit was to further strengthen the existing bilateral relations between the two countries.

Ibas while fielding questions from media men, explained that by the time the agreement between both countries was finalized, the Nigerian Navy would take delivery of naval vessels from the UK.

He said there were British personnel in Nigeria for three days specifically to conduct trainings. “So the cooperation between the two countries is strong,” he said.

Earlier, the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had said that a lot of the UK’s oil came from the Nigerian Waters.

‘I congratulate the Nigerian Navy for what it is doing to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. We in the UK are very proud to offer assistance to the Navy to become even better in tackling piracy,” he said.