A damning report published today by an international business magazine has accused many officers of the Nigerian Navy of involvement in piracy and other unethical practices.

In a report originating from Russia entitled “Kremlin Seeks London Sanctions for Nigerian Navy in Myre Seadiver Case,” Business Insider quoted an unnamed “leading Nigerian maritime expert” as disclosing that many of the country’s naval officers are involved in illegal business and that this is negatively impacting on their work.

“Naval officers,” according to the report, “control a handful of security companies which assign Nigerian Navy ratings to provide vessel security for visiting foreign cargo vessels; in these arrangements Navy officers take a commission. A larger and more lucrative business, the source claims, is in the hijacking to order of oil cargoes, which takes place in the so-called Togo Triangle, in the Gulf of Guinea, off the Nigerian and Benin coasts.

“In this zone tankers bound out of Nigeria for foreign markets are boarded and their cargoes transferred to a pirate tanker fleet. The allegation of the Lagos source is that ‘at least half of the tankers used for this are owned by Nigerian officers.’ ”

The report faulted the arrest and detention in Nigeria since last October of the Russian vessel Myre Seadiver and its 15-man Russian crew, for alleged arm running. The report claimed that the crew did nothing wrong but was a victim of the corruption in the Nigerian maritime system. It said that Moscow had since expressed its displeasure to Abuja and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would raise the issue with African leaders during a meeting in Durban, South Africa, on March 26 and 27.

“The Nigerian Navy and its representatives in London and Moscow have refused to respond to questions about the case,” the report said.

•Photo: Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Amiral Dele Ezeoba.