Shame: Nigerian cadets deported from Ukraine •After shooting Ukrainian Police

Scores of Nigerian cadets who were taken to Ukraine by a private maritime training institution have been deported on the orders of that country’s immigration authourities.
The unlucky cadets; most of whom had completed their pre- sea training programme in a Nigerian academy which is purportedly being run by a marine engineer, one Mohammed Yusuf reportedly got the boot to leave Ukraine after a disagreement on their allowances and the events that followed.
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed last week that the first set of the deportee-cadets arrived the country recently, while another batch is being expected any moment from now.
A “save our soul” message which was sent to our website by one of the embattled cadets who is yet to arrive Nigeria confirmed that he and some of his colleagues were actually deported after a shoot out at an airport in Ukraine. But, he explained that the gun shots were not meant for the Police, but for the coordinator. 
The cadet who pleaded anonymity alleged that the owner of the Nigerian academy has been facilitating foreign sea-time for cadets for a while and that he was fond of short-changing them.
“He is the middleman between us and the companies that own the ship on which we were engaged as officer cadets, he also collects our entitlements, but does not pay us in full”, the cadet wrote in his e-mail to [email protected] from his hideout in Ukraine. 
He disclosed that he “stumbled on your website” adding that “since then have been visiting it”, but requested that their plight be brought to the attention of relevant Nigerian agencies.
According to him, trouble started when the cadets who were already engaged aboard Ukrainian ships got wind of the fact that some young, innocent Nigerians were on their ways to Ukraine on the same programme.
“We decided to storm the airport and wait for Engineer Yusuf who is coordinating us, we fired shots at the airport to make a point that we meant business, because he has defrauded us and we have been trying to reach him to no avail”, the cadet added.
The gun shot reportedly accidentally hit a Ukrainian Police officer and from then on their trouble started and this culminated in their deportation.
Shipping Position Weekly also gathered that the Engineer Yusuf whose contact no one was willing to divulge runs African Maritime Academy which is located in Oyo, Oyo state and a branch in Igando, a Lagos suburb.
Our correspondent also learnt that the academy has a very strong relation ship with Ukraine-based Merchant Navy Training Bureau which has facilitated the placement of Nigerian cadets on Ukrainian ships. It was confirmed that before the latest development, several young and adventurous cadets had benefited from the Ukrainian offer and they were all facilitated by Engineer Yusuf.
He was reported to first send some to the Regional Maritime Academy in Ghana, that is, after completing their pre sea training courses at his Nigeria-based academy.
Contact for reactions about the plight of the cadets and the role of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), its head of public relations, Hajia Lami Tumaka dissociated the agency from the travails of the cadets, even as she disclosed that NIMASA was unaware of the plight of the cadets in Ukraine.
She explained that often, some private maritime training institutions take Nigerian cadets on foreign sea training without involving or informing NIMASA.
According to her, under normal circumstances, the training institution that is taking the cadets abroad “should inform us since we are the agency that issues certificates to seafarers”.