Nigerian Navy avert Pirate attack on 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. 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.

Consequently, the new tactics of using warehouses by the crude oil
thieves has been noted seriously. Therefore, the Nigerian Navy is
warning owners of warehouses in the Niger Delta area to avoid the
temptation of leasing out their properties to the criminals. The Service
will not be held responsible for damages done to the properties in the
course of the current clampdown on crude oil theft, vandalism and piracy
in the area.

Commodore CHRISTIAN ODOGWU EZEKOBE
Director of Information, Nigerian Navy