About four months after she was hijacked of the coast of Angola with crude oil, investigations have revealed that the ill-fated MT Kerala was actually hijacked by dare devil Nigerian pirates.
The Liberian Registry which spearheaded the INTERPOL investigations immediately after the celebrated hijack, released snippets of its findings last week, in which it concluded that, contrary to initial reports, there was no doubt that the tanker was hijacked by Nigerian pirates.
About four months after she was hijacked of the coast of Angola with crude oil, investigations have revealed that the ill-fated MT Kerala was actually hijacked by dare devil Nigerian pirates.
The Liberian Registry which spearheaded the INTERPOL investigations immediately after the celebrated hijack, released snippets of its findings last week, in which it concluded that, contrary to initial reports, there was no doubt that the tanker was hijacked by Nigerian pirates.
The world acclaimed ‘open’ registry said on Friday that its investigation is based on evidence gathered by an INTERPOL-led multinational Incident Response Team as well as findings of its own investigative efforts.
Liberia actively participated at the Joint Co-ordination Meeting of interested parties of the Kerala hijacking incident at INTERPOL Headquarters in Lyon in April 2014.
“Liberia requested the attendance of the INTERPOL Incident Response Team in Tema, Ghana, the port of refuge to which the Kerala was directed following the disembarkation of the pirates. This team, supported and helped by the Ghanaian authorities, undertook a crime scene investigation on board the vessel”, it said.
The detailed investigations involved collection of forensic evidence, one on one interviews with some of the crew on board the tanker.
“All parties were given full access to the vessel’s documents, officers and crew”, the report added.
Giving a hint that it has zeroed-in on Nigerian pirates as culprits in the attack, the report specifically confirmed that, “the vessel proceeded to Nigeria and the cargo was offloaded off the coast of that country by the pirates, believed to be Nigerian nationals”.
The investigation report also described the ordeal of the fourth engineer based on his account of the circumstances of the hijacking incident. It also revealed that, during the hijacking, the pirates disabled the Kerala’s AIS and other communication equipment so that the vessel could not be tracked from shore or satellite.
“During this period, the pirates painted over the identifying features of the vessel, including funnel, name (Eral instead of Kerala) and IMO number. The pirates also undertook three separate ship-to-ship transfers of cargo amounting to the theft of approximately 12,271 mt of cargo”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Greek-owned oil tanker was intercepted by the Nigerian Navy after she had disappeared for four days.
Three vessels were subsequently sent to search for the tanker, she was later located about 50 nautical miles South West of Pennington Oil Terminal in Nigeria.
However, two of the vessels, namely: MT ITRI and the tug boat GARE were spotted near the location of the missing tanker, allegedly conducting ship-to-ship transfer of products from her.
The Nigerian Navy subsequently began a manhunt for MT ITRI and eventually tracked it to the Lagos Area and detained it.
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