Men of the Nigerian Navy have arrested and detained a foreign-flagged vessel; MT Traoical alleged to be carrying about 83 metric tones of substances suspected to be stolen crude.
The Greece- owned vessel which was said to belong to Golden Carrier Shipping Lines with IMO registration number 7038941 was arrested alongside her 10- man crew by men of the Naval Task Group (NTG) on two manta class boats at the entrance of the forward operating base (FOB) of the Nigerian Navy at Escravos bar.
Official sources at the NNS Beecroft of the Navy in Lagos who confirmed the incidence to Shipping Position Weekly said that the arrested vessel and her crew were on their way to Cotonou in the Benin Republic and that it is currently being anchored at the old NPA wharf in Warri alongside other seized vessels.
According to him, the crew which is also currently being detained at the NNS Delta Naval Police cell in Delta State includes two Ghanaian nationals and eight Nigerians. The identities are simply given as Mr. Felix Ogogo (Captain) Nelson Seanehia (engineer) Yakubu Otun and Teko Peter (oilers).
The source hinted our correspondent that “there was a confessional statement from the crew on board the vessel that it was originally registered in Panama as MT Lucia 1 and that the original name was later changed to MT Scorpion in year 2000, before it was now given its current name in Cotonou in 2001”
Other members of the crew who were arrested are: Augustine Eyimofe, Tony Shube, Lucky Tonwe, Sunday Apou, Segun Agbeyegbe and Felix Mogbeyiteren.
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