Navy hands over MT Maro to steel company for recycling 

The Forward Operating Base, FORMOSO, Nigeria Navy, has handed over a grounded seized vessel, MT Maro as scrap to a steel company to dismantle and recycle.

The Navy seized the grounded vessel after its crew members were arrested for involvement in illegal bunkering since 2014.

Commander of FORMOSO, Captain Suleiman Ibrahim, said the move was to enable the scrap to be recycled into other useful things.

He said the owners of the vessel after the arrest of the crew and subsequent prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), has since absconded, leaving the vessel behind.

He said: “Today, we came for the handing over of MT Maro, which was under the custody of the Nigerian Navy, but now it’s been officially handed over to Sir Francis Orjiako, he’s the manager of Ayo Steel, an industrialist, and he intends to scrap the vessel and use it for some other things. 

“Sometimes in 2014, it was originally arrested for some infractions which had to do with crude oil theft and has since been here.  Usually, when arrests are made, the owner of the vessels has a responsibility to maintain present on the vessel. What the Navy does is that as soon as these arrests are made, the vessels are handed over to the EFCC who will investigate and prosecute. But it does not exonerate the owners, the companies who own the vessel from directly looking after the vessel running the machinery.”

The Managing Director of Ayo Steel, Francis Orjiako, said he intended to dismantle the vessel into scraps and melt into iron rods for industrial use.