A fishing and research vessel which was donated by the Japanese Government to the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research in Lagos has been stolen by pirates.
This is even as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said last week that it has been able to trace the missing vessel to neighbouring Cameroun.
Even though he did not divulge the name of the vessel, NIMASA Executive Director of Operations, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin told Shipping Position Daily on the sidelines of an event in Lagos last week that the vessel was donated to the school by the Japanese government for purposes of training.
Fashakin said that the vessel was stolen from where it was anchored on Lagos water and the school notified NIMASA. He said the agency had moved swiftly into action and that he had constituted his Special Assistant and some staff to form a search party to recover the vessel.
He told our correspondent that "Oceanography just told us that their vessel was missing so we had to move in and because NIMASA is charged with ensuring and promoting indigenous shipping in Nigeria, we had to move in, and with the deployment of the right tools"
"There is a great collaboration in the shipping business; information sharing is one of the cardinal means of ensuring that global shipping is safe and secure.
Through that collaborative effort, we were able to get Cameroun telling us that the vessel was found in their country", he told our correspondent.
Efforts to speak with the school authority for more clarification proved abortive as phone numbers of the Rector were not connecting.
Also, our correspondent contacted the captain of the vessel (names withheld) but she was unwilling to disclose any information.
A Special Assistant to former Director General of NIMASA, Galtima Liman also said that the disappearance of the vessel is not surprising. He said that a fishing vessel can easily be stolen in the country without the culprit being challenged.
A reliable source at the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research however confirmed the name of the vessel as Sarki Baraka.
He said "it is a fishing and research vessel, but currently we don't know where that vessel is anymore"
Investigations revealed that Sarki Baraka is a 1982 built Panama flagged vessel with IMO number 8103107, MMSI: 371759000
Call Sign: HO4222.
It has a Gross Tonnage of 1091 and Deadweight: 1200. The length Overall and Breadth Extreme is 68.58m × 12.5m
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