The Nigerian Navy has acted fast, foiling a serious attempt to hijack a merchant ship in a Rivers State community.
Nigerian navy
The Nigerian Navy has revealed that it successfully foiled an
attempted hijack of a Merchant Vessel, MV UAL HOUSTON, around Bonny
Fairway Buoy, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to Premium Times, the Acting Director of Information,
Naval Headquarters, Suleman Dahun, disclosed this in a statement issued
on Friday in Abuja.
Mr. Dahun said that the incident occurred on July 13, at about 7.45 a.m.
He said six suspected sea robbers boarded the vessel but were
unable to access the ship’ s living quarters, bridge or machinery room
as the ship was on lockdown by the crew.
“Subsequently, on receipt of the ship’s distress call, the
Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bonny dispatched a boat to rescue the
vessel.
“On sighting the naval patrol boat, the robbers abandoned their hijack plot and fled,” Mr. Dahun said.
He said that preliminary investigation revealed that no crew member was abducted nor any item was stolen during the attack.
He noted that the Navy had sustained the recent trend of successes
in the operations against crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and other
illegal activities in the Niger Delta.
The acting director of Information, also said that NN ship (NNS)
PATHFINDER had discovered and destroyed seven illegal refineries around
Bolo Creek and Isaka axis in Rivers.
“The illegal refineries destroyed at Bolo Creek had several
storage tanks, two wooden boats laden with about 80,000 litres of
suspected stolen crude oil and 65,000 litres of illegally refined
Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).
“The illegal refineries destroyed in Isaka axis had storage
pits laden with 45,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and 5,000
litres of illegally refined AGO,” he said.
Similarly, Mr. Dahun said, a patrol team deployed by the Forward
Operating Base, FOB, Bonny arrested a vessel, MT LEADERSHIP, around Onne
axis for conducting illegal bunkering operations.
“The vessel was arrested while receiving unspecified amount of
petroleum products suspected to be illegally refined AGO from a barge
without valid naval approval.
“The vessel had 12 crewmen while 16 men were on the barge. The
vessel and the barge are currently under the custody of the Base, while
investigation is on-going,” he said.
According to Mr. Dahun, the Nigerian Navy has reiterated its
commitments to continue to clamp down on illegal refineries and their
operators, crude oil thieves and other criminal activities in the
maritime domain.
This, he said, was all targeted at meeting operational objectives in line with the Chief of Naval Staff’s Strategic Directive.
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