About three weeks after they were arrested, four Nigerians on Friday appeared before a Magistrates Court in the United Kingdom (UK) for attempting to hijack a container ship heading to Britain.
The accused, whose identities were given as: Samuel Jolumi (26), Ishola Sunday (27), Toheeb Popoola (26) and Joberto McGee (20) were arraigned before the Southend Magistrates Court for attempting to hijack the 770-foot cargo ship Grande Tema, sailing off the Coast of Kent last month.
They had previously been charged with affray on the ship which they had allegedly boarded illegally in Lagos as stowaways.
They entered no plea.
However, Prosecutor Lesley Chipps told the court on Friday that the accused persons were stowaways on a vessel and that when the crew became aware of them, they were “secured into a room and provided food etc.”
Giving further details, Chipps added that, “the allegation is, they then made good their escape from that room.
“The captain had to secure his crew into a secure room, so they were safe. They then approached the room with iron bars and made the threats.
“The ship was off the port of Tilbury and forces had to board the ship to get them.
“At that point they were fully compliant when they were taken off the vessel.”
The crew of the ship locked themselves in the bridge after the stowaways apparently broke out of a cabin they were being held in.
The accused persons allegedly broke out of the cabin they were locked in, smashed some windows and smeared faeces to force the crew do their bidding.
The situation was only brought under control after Special Boat Squadron team stormed the ship and arrests were made.
The case was transferred to Crown Court. The four have been remanded in custody.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that they were arrested after UK’s Special Forces stormed the cargo ship off the country’s coast.
Special Boat Service (SBS) operatives from Sabre Squadron fast-roped from helicopters on to the ship which had been sailing in the Thames Estuary.
The operation lasted around 25 minutes and no one on-board was injured.
Essex Police said the vessel was taken to the Port of Tilbury and four men have been arrested under the Immigration Act.
The ship arrived at the Port of Tilbury in the early hours of Saturday December 29, 2018 a little after 4.20am.
Its operator, Grimaldi Lines, had earlier reported that four stowaways armed with iron tubes had called for the crew to navigate closer to the coast.
The company’s spokesman Paul Kyprianou confirmed that “the vessel was coming from Nigeria… They managed to escape from the cabin and started threatening the crew, requesting to have the vessel navigate very close to the coast.
“We understand they wanted to jump and reach the British coast.”
He added that the crew locked themselves in the bridge of the vessel after the migrants had picked up potentially harmful objects.
“They managed to get whatever they could find on the vessel… pieces of iron, tubes and things like that and this is what they used in order to threaten,” Mr Kyprianou said.
The vessel had been travelling eastwards through the English Channel when the migrants were discovered.
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