The Nigerian Navy through its newly launched Operation, tagged DELTA SANITY has curb crude oil theft with the arrest of a syndicate of 13 crew members comprising One Ghanaian and 12 Nigerians on board a Ghanaian owned and registered vessel known as Motor Tanker SWEET MIRI.
According to Statement from the Navy, the arrest which occured last week sunday at about 174 naughtical miles, that’s approximately 320km off Nigeria’s coast, heading towards Benin Republic.
The naval authorities said the vessel was observed to have switched off its Automatic Identification System ,AIS, in a bid to evade detection.
The infraction by the vessel contravene the International Ships and Port Security Code ISPS and the vessel was tagged a “Vessel of Interest”.
At the time of arrest, it was discovered that MT SWEET MIRI was 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.
