Sea piracy and security challenges of maritime business operations in Bayelsa State

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Security course: Postgraduate research at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology language: English abstract: This study examines sea piracy and security challenges of maritime business in Bayelsa State Nigeria. To achieve the objectives of this study three research hypotheses were formulated. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted; the population of the study comprise of maritime business operators in Bayelsa State Nigeria. A Sample of 215 sea business operators in 9 waterfronts cutting across the three senatorial districts of Bayelsa State was selected by simple random sampling. A Likert Scale questionnaire on Sea Piracy and Security Challenge was developed by the researcher and administered to 24 respondents which formed part of data collected. The Routine Activity Theory which is associated with Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson was adopted as the theoretical guide of this study. Three null hypotheses were tested using regression analysis (r) at 0.05 level of significance. Results from the findings shows that the three hypotheses were rejected. The study found amongst others that sea piracy affects sea faring and fishing business significantly in Bayelsa State. It therefore recommends that concerted efforts aimed at increasing and equipping security agencies responsible for policing Bayelsa State territorial waters should be the major concern of the government and other stakeholders in the maritime sector.