HOW NIGERIAN NAVY AVERTS PIRATE ATTACK ON 3 MERCHANT VESSELS

The Nigerian Navy has averted pirate attack on 3 merchant vessels, namely MV MOXON, MT AFRICAN BEAUTY and MT MADONA. The vessels were attacked around Brass waterways in Bayelsa State on 3 and 4 May 2016. 

COMMODORE CHRISTIAN ODOGWU EZEKOBE , Director of Information, Nigerian Navy said the criminals made spirited effort to seize the vessels but the timely response of the special protective team deployed by the Nigerian Navy successfully dislodged the pirates who fled to evade arrest.

In a related development, the naval patrol team deployed by NNS PATHFINDER on 4 May 2016 discovered and destroyed 2 active illegal crude oil refineries located at NAFCON creek. The refineries had 7 storage tanks containing about 10,000 litres of stolen crude oil and 20,000 litres of illegally refined AGO. 

This is even as the patrol team destroyed a warehouse used by the criminals to hide illegally refined products. The massive warehouse located at Ikpokiri community in Rivers State had GP tanks containing suspected illegally refined AGO.

Navy Launch Total Manhunt for Suspected Pirate Charles Parker

The Nigerian navy has said that Charles Ekpemefumor, also known as Charles Parker, is wanted for allegedly masterminding the hijack of the MT Maximus vessel and its crew. 

Navy declared Charles Ekpemefumor wanted for allegedly masterminding a recent pirate attack and hijacking of a vessel and its crew, MT Maximus.

A statement by Navy spokesman Air Commodore Christian Ezekobe said the vessel with 18 crew members, carrying 4,368.203MT of Gas Oil was hijacked on 11th February 2016 by a group of suspected pirates off Cote d'Ivoire waters.

He said the navy rescued the vessel on 19th February 2016 within Sao Tome waters 320 nautical miles (nm) off the Nigerian coast.