About 15 countries, including France, United States and Germany would converge on Ghana with 18 war ships for the commencement of a military maneuver that would assist Nigeria and other African navies, check piracy and armed banditry at sea.
The vessels including frigates and offshore patrol vessels (OPV) would be drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, São Tomé and Principe, Spain, Turkey, Denmark, Portugal, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic, Angola, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Norway and Belgium.
Obangame Express is a maritime exercise designed to improve cooperation among participating nations in order to increase maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea. It focuses on maritime interdiction operation, as well as visit, board, search, and seizure techniques.
Addressing journalists on the conduct of the 2015 edition of the exercise, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Jonathan Ango the newly acquired Nigerian Navy vessel, NNS Okpabana , NNS Thunder and the NNS Centenary would be participating in the exercise.
Admiral Ango said that the NNS Ikot Abasi, a Shaldag class boat and two special boat platoon will also participate in the exercise which is mainly a simulation on piracy and armed banditry at sea.
The FOC who addressed journalists onboard NNS Okpabana also revealed that the flag off of the exercise would be in Ghana on March 19, 2015, adding that the objective of the exercise is the assess participating countries on the conduct of maritime operations.
