PC-NCG commends prompt security intervention in NCG employment scam in Akwa Ibom, calls for investigation, protection of the public

The Provisionary Committee of the proposed Nigerian Coast Guard (PC-NCG) welcomes the prompt intervention of the Nigerian Navy, working with sister security agencies, following credible intelligence reports of an alleged unauthorised recruitment and training exercise involving persons presented as provisional cadets of a purported Nigerian Coast Guard in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The reported operation on 31 August 2026 followed credible intelligence and involved personnel of the Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee, Headquarters 2 Brigade/Operation Thunder, 6 Battalion Nigerian Army and the Violent Crime Response Unit of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

The PC-NCG considers the intervention important, not merely because an alleged recruitment and training scheme was disrupted, but because it brings into sharp focus a matter that requires sobriety, truth, institutional discipline and national responsibility.
The proposed Nigerian Coast Guard is a matter of national institutional policy with implications for Nigeria’s maritime security architecture, the Nigerian Navy and other maritime and security agencies, the blue economy, coastal communities and the protection of Nigeria’s maritime interests.

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It is therefore not an institution that can legitimately be created, activated, recruited into, trained for, uniformed or operationalized by private individuals or groups outside the appropriate constitutional, legislative and governmental processes. The PC-NCG respectfully urges all persons involved in, or contemplating involvement in activities presented as Nigerian Coast Guard recruitment, training or operations to pause, verify and reflect carefully before proceeding further. This is not a matter on which anyone needs to be arrogant, confrontational or unnecessarily defensive. The facts, the law and the appropriate governmental processes should be allowed to speak for themselves.

The PC-NCG also wishes to make an important distinction. Not every person who may have attended such an activity should automatically be regarded as a willing participant in wrongdoing. Some Nigerians are unemployed; some are desperate for opportunities; some genuinely desire a career in maritime security; and some may simply have trusted representations made to them by persons they believed were acting legitimately. The PC-NCG therefore urges the authorities and the public to allow due process to determine individual responsibility. Those who were genuinely deceived should have become victim of second degree prey because of the deception perpetrated upon them. At the same time, desperation for employment must never become an avenue through which unsuspecting Nigerians are exposed to fraudulent promises, financial exploitation or unauthorised security activities.

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The PC-NCG considers it necessary to correct a particularly dangerous misconception. The ongoing facilitation process for the proposed Nigerian Coast Guard is one platform and is not a recruitment or training exercise. It is not a programme for gathering unemployed Nigerians, training job seekers or promising participants automatic employment. It is certainly not an exercise whereby persons who attend such unrecognized training automatically become soldiers, security personnel or Coast Guard officers, nor does attendance confer any lawful entitlement to wear a government security uniform or exercise security powers.

Any representation suggesting otherwise is misleading. The legitimate facilitation process is directed towards developing the professional, institutional, legislative and policy foundations necessary to enable the appropriate authorities to make informed decisions concerning the proposed Nigerian Coast Guard.

There is, however, a legitimate and constructive place for Nigerians who sincerely wish to contribute to the development of the proposal for the establishment of Nigerian Coast Guard. Experienced maritime professionals, seafarers, naval and security professionals, legal practitioners, marine engineers, environmental specialists, academics, policy experts, economists, divers and other persons with relevant professional knowledge who genuinely wish to contribute are welcome to make their expertise available to the facilitation team. They are not being asked to pay money to become members of a Coast Guard. What is sought from such persons is their professional wisdom, experience, technical knowledge and availability, which can assist the facilitation team in assembling relevant information and professional data for presentation to the appropriate authorities. That is fundamentally different from recruitment.

The PC-NCG equally appeals to parents, guardians, sponsors and other persons who may be financing young people to participate in purported Coast Guard programmes to exercise particular caution. Before committing money, transportation expenses, accommodation costs, equipment purchases or other resources, verify the legal status, authority and purpose of the organisation or programme concerned. No person’s enthusiasm for a better future should be exploited. Sponsors should ask simple questions: Who authorised this programme? Under what law? Which government authority recognises it? Is it recruitment, training, professional consultation or something else? Who is receiving the money, and under what lawful authority? Where satisfactory answers cannot be independently established, the prudent course is to stop and verify.

The PC-NCG further recognises that there are legitimate private-sector actors who wish to provide maritime security and related professional services. There is nothing inherently wrong with such aspirations where they are pursued lawfully, transparently and under the appropriate regulatory framework.

Persons who wish to establish a private maritime-security organisation should pursue the appropriate registration, licensing, regulatory approvals and operational authorizations applicable to such activities, rather than presenting a private organisation as a Nigerian Government Security Agency or as an already-established Nigerian Coast Guard. The distinction must remain clear: A private maritime-security organisation is not the Nigerian Coast Guard.

The PC-NCG also appeals for restraint to everyone involved. There is no need for insults, threats, intimidation, rivalry or attempts to outshout one another. Those who genuinely believe in the Coast Guard idea should be prepared to subject their interests to law, evidence, professional scrutiny and due governmental process. Those who have legitimate expertise should bring it forward. Those who have evidence should present it to the appropriate authorities. Those who have questions should ask them. Those who may have been misled should be willing to reconsider. And where wrongdoing has occurred, the appropriate authorities should be allowed to investigate and, where the evidence warrants it, take lawful action.

The objective should not be to defeat one another. The objective should be to prevent falsehood from becoming policy, prevent desperation from becoming exploitation, and ensure that any institution eventually established in Nigeria’s maritime security architecture is founded on law, competence, accountability and national interest.

The PC-NCG appreciates the Nigerian Navy and the sister security agencies involved in the reported operation for their prompt response, and for saving the integrity of the process and name of Nigerian Coast Guard.
The PC-NCG position is national interest and interested-parties friendly and it is not to create panic, not to secure personal advantage, and not to pronounce guilt before investigation, but to bring potentially interests together for a common, for it would not support attempt to either double-cross its efforts, plunder innocent Nigerians or put law enforcement and security agencies on stress. We encourage the authorities to continue their investigation objectively and professionally, while ensuring that persons who were merely deceived are distinguished from persons who may have knowingly organised or participated in unlawful activities. The PC-NCG remains committed to the lawful facilitation of the proposed Nigerian Coast Guard through appropriate legislative, governmental and professional processes. We remain convinced that Nigeria’s maritime future deserves institutions founded not on personality, improvisation or private claims of authority, but on law, professional competence, clear jurisdiction, sustainable funding, accountability and the overriding interest of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The present circumstances should therefore be treated as an opportunity for everyone — government, security agencies, maritime professionals, advocates, prospective participants and the general public — to become better informed.

Let the truth prevail over assumption. Let law prevail over self-appointment. Let professional competence prevail over empty claims. Let national interest prevail over personal ambition. The proposed Nigerian Coast Guard is too important to Nigeria to be treated as a private possession

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