For the third time in about three weeks, daredevil sea robbers attacked a crude oil tanker on October 1 off Bonny Island in Rivers just as the nation was celebrating her 50 years as an independent nation.
Although details of the latest attack were sketchy as at press time, our sources within the maritime, oil and gas sectors in oil-rich Rivers state confirmed the attack, even though they could not confirm the identity of the tanker that was attacked.
However, in a response to enquiries made to it by Shipping Position Weekly, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) also confirmed the attack which it recorded as “Attack number – 2010/289” in its log book.
The global body which has its piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia added that the attackers boarded the crude oil tanker and went ahead to kidnap the Chief Engineer, the second officer, mess boy among others.
Going further, the IMB disclosed that the attack occurred on position “0100 LT: 04:03.45N – 006:48.07E, around 25nm SW of Bonny Island, Nigeria”.
Last week’s attack came about 10 days after another ship was attacked of the same Bonny River when about 21 armed pirates in three crafts boarded a pipe layer crane vessel undertow. Just like the attack of last week, the pirates were able to take one crewmember as hostage. The ship’s Master called Nigerian naval vessel in vicinity. Later the pirates released the crew and left the vessel.
But according to the IMB, on September 23, 2010, another set of five sea robbers armed with knives boarded a bulk carrier at berth in Lagos port.
“The robbers threatened one of the deck watch keepers, took his walkie-talkie and locked him in the paint store. They were spotted by the shore watchman who raised the alarm. The robbers escaped with ship stores and crew personal effects. The incident was reported to the local authorities and the police boarded the vessel for further investigation”.
A similar attack had taken place at the same Bonny about two months ago precisely at the Fairway Buoy where sea robbers hijacked two ships and kidnapped six crew members.
Those kidnapped included: the captains of the two ships, the chief engineers and two others. Our source had confirmed the names of the two ships as: MT Orion and MV Apollonian. The latter is billed for Onne port.
The rampant attacks on ships and other water crafts had prompted the Navy to advise that ships calling at Nigerian ports and terminals should stop berthing at night in order to avoid being attacked.
The advice was given recently by the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral Benjamin Acholonu in Calabar, Cross Rivers State at the end of his tour of naval facilities and oil companies within his Command and barely 24 hours after the Bonny Fairway Buoy incident.
According to him, the Navy, through the Nigerian Ports Authority, had repeatedly warned ships to avoid berthing at night but some ship captains have refused to heed the warning.
‘’The ships themselves are part of their problems. The (Naval) bases have through the NPA instructed that ships should not be entering unduly in the night? Why can’t they enter the harbour in the daytime? Some of them prefer to enter the harbour in the night and thereby expose themselves to undue danger.
“If you have any problem as a vessel that you cannot enter the harbour by daytime, then you stay at high sea. If you stay very close to the harbour, then their (sea robbers) boats can get at you, but if you stay at high sea their boats can’t get to you. It is one of the ways they should help the Services to check the robbers’’, he pointed out.
The global piracy reporting agency had in confirming the attack on the two ships at the Bonny Fairway Buoy disclosed that “seven pirates armed with machine guns boarded a landing craft vessel underway. Master and C/O remained on the bridge and all the other crewmembers were instructed to lock themselves in a safe compartment.
After a few hours when the crew came out of hiding, they found the bridge unmanned. The pirates had kidnapped the Master and C/O to an unknown location. C/E informed the owners and managers. Agents reported the incident to the local authorities”.
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