Navy rescues merchant tanker from pirates in Rivers

The Nigerian Navy has rescued a British merchant tanker identified as MT Vectis Osprey from sea pirates.

The Director of Information of the Navy, Commodore Christian Ezekobe, said in a statement on Thursday that a Navy warship, NNS Nwamba, rescued the vessel which came under attack from the pirates 20 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny on Wednesday.

He said, “The British flagged MT Vectis OspreY departed Bonny offshore terminal and came under pirate attack on Wednesday 17 August, 2016. NNS NWAMBA engaged the attackers on approaching the vessel which made them to abandon their mission due to superior fire power.

“To this end, Naval special forces onboard the war ship embarked and rescued the crew who locked up themselves in a citadel in the merchant tanker.

“The crew and cargo of MT Vectis Osprey are safe while investigation has also commenced in order to unravel the circumstances of the attempted hijack, especially with regard to the current trend of involvement of crew members in attacks on their own vessels.

“Additionally, ship owners are hereby advised to profile their crew before embarking them onboard to avoid situations in which some disgruntled crew members stage-manage attacks on their own vessels.”