The Nigerian Navy Ship, NWAMBA, has rescued a merchant Tanker vessel from sea pirates who attacked it off the shore of Bonny.

The rescue operation was in response to a timely alert sent by the International Maritime Bureau, IMB, to the Naval Regional Maritime Awareness Centre, RMAC.

Christian Ezekobe, Director of Information in the Nigerian Navy in a press release on Thursday said that the British flagged vessel named “MT VECTIS OSPREY” left the Bonny offshore terminal and came under pirate attack on Wednesday.

However, the Navy Ship engaged the attackers on approaching the vessel, forcing them to abandon their mission due to superior fire power.

The occupants of the vessel, who had locked themselves up in a compartment in the merchant tanker, were subsequently rescued.

Ezekobe stated that “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.”

He advised Ship owners to always “profile their crew before embarking them onboard to avoid situations in which some disgruntled crew members stage-manage attacks on their own vessels.”

“The Nigerian Navy wishes to seize this opportunity to remind the public, particularly those operating in the maritime environment that the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas is poised to eliminate all forms of criminal activities in the maritime domain, hence several initiatives have been made in this regard,

“To mention a few, the initiatives are the conduct of operation TSARE TEKU, Choke point regime and the deployment of capital ships for daily patrol. It is worthy to note that these measures have drastically reduced incidents of sea piracy and other crimes on our territorial waters.”