OPERATIVES of the Nigerian Navy have rescued 13 foreign nationals aboard a merchant ship leaving Nigeria for Cameroon.
The Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship, Nwamba, Capt. Mustapha Hassan, told newsmen in Bonny Local Government Area that the incident happened on Wednesday.
It was gathered that a merchant ship, MT Vectis Osprey, had sailed into Nigeria from Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, a week earlier with general consignments.
Hassan explained that the ship was for Douala, Cameroon, on Aug. 17 after discharging her cargo before being attacked by nine armed sea pirates.
He disclosed that the suspected pirates had boarded the Ship with the aim of kidnapping the 13 crew members.
According to the NNS Nwamba Commanding Officer, the crew members were of different nationalities comprising of seven Philippines, two Romanians, one Russian, one Polish, one Indian, and one Croatian.
He, however, stated that the sea pirates jumped into the sea and escaped as a result of the superior firepower of the special forces of the Nigerian Navy.
He said, “On Aug. 17, MT Vectis Osprey, a British ship was attacked by sea pirates about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny Island Fairway Buoy in Rivers.
“We got a distress alert from the operations centre at the naval headquarters which dispatched NNS Nwamba with NNS Okpabana to shadow the operation.
“On getting the may-day distress call, we immediately set course to intercept and rescue the merchant ship from hijack by sea pirates.
“On arrival, Special Forces attacked the nine heavily armed pirates who jumped into the sea and escaped apparently due to superior gunfire and tactical awareness of troops.
“The operation was largely successful as all 13 foreign crew members, including the captain, are safe and unhurt, while cargo on board the ship is intact.”
Hassan, however, pointed out that troops could not arrest the pirates as a result of poor visibility caused by torrential rainstorm a day to the rescue.
The commanding officer explained that the Nigerian Navy under the watch of the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Adm. Ibok-Ete Ibas, remained committed to safety of the nation’s waterways.
Hassan noted that the rescue was successful as a result of the ongoing operation code-named ‘Tsare Teku II’ which sought to tackle oil theft, illegal bunkering and pirate attacks in all the nation’s coastal areas.
He said, “This operation launched on July 23 by the CNS has drastically reduced spate of sea piracy and robbery attacks in our maritime environment while improving our response to distress calls.
“The vessel would be released to the crew members on conclusion of preliminary investigation. We advise ship owners, sea fearers and others to vet and profile their crew members before recruitment.
The Captain of MT Vectis Osprey, Mr. Sobol Evgeny, a Russian national, told newsmen that the pirates sailed on a blue boat and were fully armed with AK 47 assault rifles.
Evgeny explained that in spite of embracing every rule, the pirated still found their way into the vessel.
He said, “On realising that we couldn’t stop the pirates from boarding our ship, we immediately locked ourselves inside the ship citadel (safe room) and thereafter sent distress calls to the Nigerian Navy.
“The navy responded promptly and rescued us. If not for their (navy) quick response, we would have been taken hostage or killed.”
Evgeny expressed the need for the navy to always escort merchant ships to between 30 to 50 nautical miles away from shore and argued that pirates would not be able to launch attack on such distance at sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment