THE patrol team of the Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft Operation Delta Sanity has arrested a Ghana-owned Motor Tanker (MT) Sweet Miri vessel off the coast of Nigerian waters for suspected oil theft.
The Navy said the motor tanker was filled with about two million litres of products suspected to be crude oil and had no naval approval onboard.
A statement by the Base Information Officer, Nigerian Navy Ship BEECROFT, Hussein Ibrahim, quoted the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Mustapha Hassan, to have said that the vessel was observed to have turned off its Automatic Identification System on February 25, which is an infraction within the nation’s maritime domain.
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According to the statement, the vessel was arrested 174 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria, approximately 320 kilometres, heading to Benin Republic.
It also noted that the motor tanker, SWEET MIRI vessel had 13 crew: one Ghanaian and 12 Nigerians, onboard at the time of arrest.
The statement added that the deactivated Automatic Identification System prompted the deployment of Ship ABA to investigate the vessel, which was later discovered to be carrying products suspected to be crude oil.
According to the statement, the intercepted MT vessel had been a vessel of interest to the Nigerian Navy before its arrest.
“The FOC further disclosed that in line with the directive of Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral EI Ogalla, the ship is opened for other agencies to come and take samples and carry out their own independent investigations to find out the culpability of the vessel. Also speaking, the FOC said that the vessel was owned by a Ghanian and registered in Ghana by a Ghanian company.
“In the same vein, while giving update on the earlier arrested Motor Tanker VINNALARIS, the FOC said that the CNS had instructed that the investigations of all arrested vessels should be conducted beyond the level of crew. In this regard, the FOC has extended the investigation to uncover the kingpins. He finally appreciated the efforts of DSS for assisting the Nigerian Navy in conducting investigations when matters of crude oil theft are brought to them,” the statement added.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M