The Nigerian Navy through its newly launched Operation Delta Sanity has made a major milestone with the arrest of a syndicate of 13 crew members on board a Ghanaian owned and registered vessel known as Motor Tanker (MT) Sweet Miri on February 25.
Navy spokesman, Rear Admiral Ayo Vaughan who made the disclosure yesterday noted that the arrest of the ‘economic saboteurs’ who are bent on stealing the nation’s natural resources was made at about 174 nautical miles (320km) off Nigeria’s coast heading towards Benin Republic, after the vessel was observed to have switched off her Automatic Identification System (AIS) in a bid to evade detection.
“The vessel infraction contravened the International Ships and Port Security Code and she was tagged a “Vessel of Interest” (VoI). The Navy Maritime Domain Awareness infrastructure observed the criminal intent of the vessel and vectored two navy ships on patrol to interrogate the vessel and it was discovered that MT SWEET MIRI was involved in illegalities and the vessel was arrested.
“Curiously, the suspicious disposition of the vessel necessitated the swift deployment of Nigerian Navy Ship ABA and Nigerian Navy Ship SOKOTO to intercept the vessel. Notably, upon arrest, MT SWEET MIRI was found carrying about 2 million litres of product suspected to be crude oil without any form of approval from relevant authorities.
“In line with the directive of Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, for an in-depth and independent investigation, relevant approving/prosecuting agencies have been notified for samples collection and in order to further ascertain the culpability or otherwise of the vessel.
“This is necessary to unmask the enemies of the Nation and to institute holistic and detailed investigations. Be rest assured that the NN through the reinvigorated Operation DELTA SANITY will continue to collaborate with relevant maritime, security and law enforcement agencies in order to closely monitor, evaluate and interdict where infractions are suspected so as to bring economic saboteurs to book in line with relevant extant laws of the land.” Ayo Vaughan said.
