A Nigerian pirate who was convicted and sentenced for hijacking a Dutch freighter has been charged again in connection with a previous piracy incident in 2017.
The case has been in motion for more than six years. South African police arrested pirate action group leader Itoruboemi Benson Lobia at an airport in Johannesburg in late 2018, acting on an Interpol warrant issued by the Netherlands. A South African court approved his extradition, and in 2022, a Dutch court convicted Lobia of the hijacking and kidnapping attack aboard the FWN Rapide. The Dutch-flagged freighter was attacked by pirates off Port Harcourt in 2018, and the criminals held the 11 crewmembers hostage during a month-long series of ransom negotiations. The operator, ForestWave, reportedly paid a ransom of $340,000 to secure the release of the crew – a fraction of the $2 million reportedly sought by Lobia.
The Rotterdam District Court ruled that Lobia was the operational leader of the hijacking gang, and he was sentenced to a term of 8.5 years in Dutch prison for the FWN Rapide attack. He may yet receive a longer penalty: Last week, he was “arrested” a second time while in prison, and he will be tried on additional charges related to an earlier hijacking – the attack on the German merchant ship BBC Caribbean.
On February 5, 2017, BBC Caribbean was operating off Nigeria when she was boarded by armed pirates, who abducted eight members of the crew. The hostages were transferred back to Nigeria in skiffs and hidden at a compound in the creeks of the Niger Delta. Several crewmembers managed to hide and evade capture aboard the ship, and they navigated the BBC Caribbean safely to Las Palmas, 2,500 nautical miles to the northwest.
After a month of hostage negotiations, which the pirates reportedly spent in a state of constant and severe inebriation, the kidnapped crewmembers were ransomed and released. The amount of the payment was not disclosed.
Meanwhile, the BBC Caribbean was searched on arrival at Las Palmas, and forensic investigators collected extensive evidence – including fingerprints and DNA traces from cigarette butts. One set of DNA eventually turned up a positive match: it was Lobia’s.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the National Expertise and Operations Unit (LX) launched a second investigation after finding this link, and have asked authorities in South Africa – where Lobia was first arrested – for permission to prosecute him a second time for the additional crime. An examining magistrate granted a custody order to start the case last Thursday.
