Nigeria scored yet another first on the global piracy map, being the only country that accounted for all the attacks by pirates within the Gulf of Guinea last month.
Global maritime security watchdogs, including the influential International Maritime Bureau (IMB) which released their half year report last week reported that, even though there were only five attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, attacks within and off the coast of Nigeria was prevalent last month.
Nigeria scored yet another first on the global piracy map, being the only country that accounted for all the attacks by pirates within the Gulf of Guinea last month.
Global maritime security watchdogs, including the influential International Maritime Bureau (IMB) which released their half year report last week reported that, even though there were only five attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, attacks within and off the coast of Nigeria was prevalent last month.
Shipping Position Daily confirmed last week that out of the five reported attacks, three took place around Port Harcourt, while two were in Lagos.
In Lagos, a Liberian tanker; Emar was attacked on June 1 at the Lagos anchorage, while yet another Liberia –flagged chemical tanker; Chemtrans Elbe was attacked on June 25, South East off Lagos.
Within the Port Harcourt maritime zone, the three ships that were attacked included: Fair Ermis, Cap Guillaume and Anglia.
Global maritime security sources told Shipping Position Daily last week that two of the ships were Liberia-flags, while the third was a Greece oil tanker.
Our sources confirmed that in the first attack in Lagos which lasted for more than 45 hours, unchecked, “twelve pirates armed with guns in a speed boat boarded a drifting chemical tanker. All crew were made to muster in the mess room with the Master and Chief Engineer being allowed to remain on the bridge and engine room respectively. The vessel was made to sail towards Togo and back. The pirates raided all the crew cabins and stole cash, personal effects and ship's cash and disembarked off Escravos Terminal”. The attack took place at about 50nautical miles off Lagos,
In the first Port Harcourt attacks, “six pirates armed with guns chased and fired upon an Oil Tanker underway. Master enforced anti-piracy measures and managed to evade the boarding, but vessel was damaged due to gun fire.” It occurred about 115nautical miles off Bonny Island.
In the second attack involving the Greece oil tankler, “armed pirates in a boat chased and fired upon a product tanker underway from Bonny River. The Nigerian armed naval personnel onboard the tanker exchanged fire with the pirates resulting in the pirates aborted the attempted attack after 15 minutes of firing”. This occurred about 70 nautical miles South West of Port Harcourt.
In the third Port Harcourt attack, the Liberian ship; Anglia laden with containers was also attacked by pirates around 120nautical miles off Bonny Island.
Details of the attack indicated that, the container ship was “adrift awaiting berthing instructions was approached by five armed pirates in a wooden speed boat with two outboard engines. As the pirates approached the vessel, they fired upon the vessel damaging some bridge windows and equipment. The vessel raised alarm, activated SSAS, started main engines and manoeuvred away from the approaching boat.”
Another piracy m monitor body disclosed on Friday that “two further incidents off Nigeria were reported this week, but could not be verified and included in the statistics, but warned that “operators are reminded that numerous attacks are likely to go unreported in the region, and official reports may not necessarily reflect the realities of the maritime security environment.
On the strength of the attacks and the possibility of renewed attacks, Nigeria was again red-flagged, with ship owners and crew cautioned to be on alert.
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