Piracy: Navy Intensifies Search for Abducted 10 Crew on Board Cargo Vessel off Brass
*Celebrates victory for winning Switzerland case on MT SAN PADRE PIO
The Nigerian Navy has launched a search and rescue operation to save about seven crew members abducted on board a cargo vessel, MV PAKSOY 1.
The crew were abducted last weekend off the waters of Brass in the Niger Delta.
The search and rescue operation involves all naval commands in the Niger Delta and other Nigerian maritime domain.
The Director of Naval Information, Commodore Suleman Dahun, said in a statement that the search is to discover the hideout where the crew could be held hostage.
The search operation includes conducting searches in the creeks of the Niger Delta.
Dahun said the Navy was alerted 18 hours after the abduction had taken place, but added that it had made use of international platforms and synergy with other sub-regions to find the abducted crew members.
He said in a statement, “After thorough investigation, the naval headquarters finds it imperative to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the suspected pirate attack on MV PAKSOY 1.
“On July 14, 2019, at about 16.43 hours (4.43p.m.), the naval headquarters received a report of a suspected pirate attack on MV PAKSOY 1 at about 124 nautical miles off the coast of Brass.
“Preliminary reports from Ghana Navy and IMB conveyed that the suspected pirates abducted 10 crew members of MV PAKSOY 1”
Meanwhile, the Navy has won a case in Switzerland involving crew members of MT SAN PADRE PIO, a foreign vessel arrested in Nigerian waters for trading illegally in Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The Director of Legal Services, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Jemila Malafa, said the vessel was arrested January 23, 2018 for operating without licence.
The vessel and crew were charged to court in the federal high court, Port Harcourt Division.
Following this, Switzerland had dragged Nigeria to an International Tribunal for Law of the Sea (ITLOS) pursuant to Annex VII UNCLOS, but Nigeria still won.
According to Malafa, “Parties were heard on June 21 and 22, 2019. At the ruling held on July 6, 2019, Switzerland was asked to post a bond or other financial security in the amount of $14million with Nigeria in form of a bank guarantee issued by a bank in Nigeria or a bank having corresponding arrangements with a bank in Nigeria.”
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