In a communique, the Communications Associate, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ms. Olivia Ogechi Okorondu, noted that the adoption of the said Act was to further strengthen the gains made in securing the region’s maritime domain from acts of piracy.
The communique also stated that over the past decade, the Gulf of Guinea region has been at the epicentre of the global discussions on maritime security as a result of the incidents of piracy recorded in the region. The communique revealed that in 2013, leaders of the members states of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of Central African States and Gulf of Guinea Commission , responded to the threat of insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea by adopting the Yaoundé Code of Conduct to provide a framework to facilitate cooperation at the regional level to prevent and prosecute piracy and other illegal activities in the Gulf of Guinea waters.