The Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has exonerated its members from the rising cases of theft of crude oil and petroleum products in the country.
Reacting promptly to our lead story of last Monday in which we investigated the involvement of Nigerian ships in the theft of the nation’s oil, ISAN defended the integrity of its members, even as its secretary general, Capt Niyi Labinjo told Shipping Position Daily there are some ship owners who are not members of his association.
The Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has exonerated its members from the rising cases of theft of crude oil and petroleum products in the country.
Reacting promptly to our lead story of last Monday in which we investigated the involvement of Nigerian ships in the theft of the nation’s oil, ISAN defended the integrity of its members, even as its secretary general, Capt Niyi Labinjo told Shipping Position Daily there are some ship owners who are not members of his association.
He also requested for more details of the identity of the ships that are being used for theft of crude oil and petroleum products, a request which we politely turned down as being unethical.
He confirmed that ISAN was not in a position to control the activities of ship owners who are not its members; even as he disclosed that the association was making efforts to bring all ship owners under its umbrella.
“You see, we can only vouch for our members, not all ship owners are our members”, he stated, even as he affirmed ISAN’s condemnation of the activities of oil thieves.
Shipping Position Daily had reported on Monday and Tuesday that Nigerian ships were being engaged in the stealing of the nation’s crude oil and petroleum products.
Even though, last Monday edition did not reveal the identities of the ships and their owners, on Tuesday a further confirmation of the extent of their involvement was buttressed when the newspaper reported the arrest of a Nigerian ship in Ghana by that countries nay for freighting stolen crude from Nigeria.
The Nigerian tanker, MT Madina was detained by that country’s security while attempting to discharge allegedly stolen crude oil at the Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited.
The owners of the vessel who reportedly alerted security operatives along the west coasts reported that Madina was supposed to transfer oil from a small field in Nigeria into a larger ship, identified as the MT North Wind Grace, but the captain and crew instead decided to steal the cargo.
Consequently, the owners of the vessel alerted the Benin and Ghana security and subsequently traced the ship to Ghana.
On the strength of the latest development ISAN offered to work closely with Shipping Position Daily to further expose the activities of the unscrupulous ship owners.
The ISAN scribe subsequently forwarded the list of its members to us for further collaboration.
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