Leading indigenous shipping company; Genesis Worldwide Shipping has dissociated itself from the ownership of MT Ben K that was recently arrested under controversial circumstances in far –away Namibia by that country’s maritime authorities.
The ship was arrested along with her crew on the waters of Namibia for allegedly not being in Class and having non-functional AIS on board.
Leading indigenous shipping company; Genesis Worldwide Shipping has dissociated itself from the ownership of MT Ben K that was recently arrested under controversial circumstances in far –away Namibia by that country’s maritime authorities.
The ship was arrested along with her crew on the waters of Namibia for allegedly not being in Class and having non-functional AIS on board.
The high profile arrest was reported exclusively by Shipping Position Daily last Monday and since then; Genesis Worldwide Shipping has provided evidence that it actually sold the ship since July 2011 to Messrs Lavorni Shipping Limited Corp of Panama City, Panama.
Reacting to the story through a statement issued last week by the managing director of the company, Mr. Maxwell Ihenacho, Genesis Worldwide Shipping disclosed further that, not only was the ship sold, the company also “duly informed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and instructed it to strike out the name of Ben K from the Nigerian Ship Registry.”
The statement added that, “having given the new owners bill of sales, the onus is on them to put the vessel in shape and make it seaworthy to undertake any voyage. “When a ship is sold, the standard practice is that the new owners must register the ship with a new name and obtain trading documents to enable it continue to trade, a ship always has names of her previous owners, but it is the current owner that takes responsibility for the ship, its condition and its activities at sea.
“MT Ben K is not our vessel; we have used it and sold it as we normally do in shipping. So any grouse or question whatsoever by anybody should reside with the people who currently own the ship,” he said.
The chairman, of Genesis Worldwide Shipping Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho also in the statement, said that “the voyage of the ship to India or Namibia where she was arrested was not undertaken for or on behalf of Genesis Worldwide Shipping” and therefore cannot be linked to him or his company.
And reacting to the development, the publisher of Shipping Position Daily, Mr Sesan Onileimo described Capt Ihenacho and Genesis Worldwide Shipping as respected individual and corporate members of the Nigerian shipping community and that the newspaper holds them in high esteem.
According to him, every part of the story is correct, except for the part that named Genesis Worldwide Shipping as the owners of the ship. “We do regret the mix-up”, he stressed.
He said: “Issues such as this do come up in media practice, and when you pride yourself as Nigeria’s first maritime daily newspaper and the reference point in publishing exclusive stories, you may get caught in the web, such as this, once in a while. We accept full responsibilities for the mix- up in the story which actually emanated from our professional sources in Southern Africa”.
“We did not deliberately or otherwise intend to tarnish the reputation of either Capt Ihenacho or Genesis Worldwide Shipping, we seize this opportunity to reaffirm our believe in the capabilities of Nigerian shipping companies, one of which is Genesis Worldwide Shipping.”
“We also sincerely apologize to Capt Ihenacho and his company; Genesis Worldwide Shipping and retract that portion of the story which attributed the ownership of MT Ben K to Genesis Worldwide Shipping”.
“To demonstrate our belief that Capt Ihenacho and Genesis Worldwide Shipping deserves our apology, a similar retraction was carried on our radio programme; Shipping Position Live on Star FM last Friday, because the story was also used on the programme”
Mr Onileimo also expressed the newspaper stable’s appreciation to stakeholders in the maritime industry who genuinely mediated, even as he thanked the maritime media family for their show of solidarity.
“As for those who feasted on it and who ignorantly and maliciously loathed us and schemed for the ‘worst’ to happen, we can understand where they are coming from. The MT Ben K and Shipping Position Daily saga is a further call to service. We remain Nigeria’s first maritime daily; a record that didn’t come by accident, but through years of diligence in our chosen field”, he concluded.
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