The Nigerian Navy yesterday denied reports that the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Marshal Samuel Afolayan, was involved in illegal bunkering activities or the release of the arrested bunkering ships.
A statement signed by the director of information, Naval headquarters, Navy Captain Sinebi Hungiapuko, said that the reports indicting the chief of Naval Staff by Captain Peter Duke before the House of Representa-tives committee on Navy was totally false and unfounded.
Navy Captain Hungia-puko stated that Navy Capt-ain Peter Duke, the former commanding officer of NNS BEECROFT was recently convicted by a general court martial on a three count charge for which he was found guilty.
The charges for which Navy Captain Peter Duke was convicted, according to the statement, include falsif-ication of documents, conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline and negligent performances of duties.
The statement, while explaining the circumstances of Duke’s court martial, stated that the Navy Captain had refused to conduct a process known as the “unbroken chain rule” when an oil bunk-ering ship was arrested.
“The standard operating procedure in the Nigerian Navy is that when a ship is suspected of illegal lifting of crude oil, the vessel is arrested. A process known as the unbroken chain rule is empl-oyed in testing the contents of the vessel to ascertain its actual status,” it added.
Explaining further “the rule entails that for samples of products to be taken and sent to the laboratory for analysis, all interested parties or their representatives such as naval personnel and the vessel’s crew members must be present from the taking of the samples from the vessel to the laboratory where analysis is made.”
Captain Duke was alleged to have refused to follow the process and accepted the reports obtained through due process in connection with a certain MT Cape Geo-jean arrested for illegal bunk-ering.
It added that Captain Duke directed an investig-ating officer to use a falsified laboratory report from some gas service company purpo-rted to be chemical laboratory in Lagos.
The statement added that he had sent some people to induce the officer who refu-sed to do his bidding so that he can compromise his report to the Naval authorities that the arrested vessel was carr-ying low poor fuel oil (LPFO), instead of crude oil.
Hungiapuko said “Captain Duke has been tried, convicted and sentenced to dismissal on the three count charges respectively and therefore not surprising that Captain Duke would make unsubstantiated allegations against the person of the Chief of Naval Staff and other senior naval officers”.
The revelations against the naval chief was made at the continuation of investigations by the House of Representatives committee on the Navy into the alleged missing MT African Pride.
Captain Peer Duke, who took over on October 20, 2003, as the commander at the NNS Beecroft shortly after the ship was arrested and kept in Navy’s custody, under oath bared his mind frankly and disclosed that he had facts that the CNS had contact, directly or indirectly with those who hired the missing ship for oil bunkering purposes.
He said the CNS had once reached an accord with Dr Ogunloye and had tried to interfere in his official duties as officer commanding the unit but that he was able to overcome due to the desire for propriety and professional ethics which however incurred the wrath of the CNS.
He said the Naval Chief had once called him on phone insulting him apparently for turning down a request for the illegal release of a detained oil bunkering ship, citing the case of MT Molar which the chief had interest in and ordered its release.
The officer who has been court martialed and is awa-iting the confirmation of his dismissal by the Navy, how-ever told the committee that there are officers in the Navy who, “believe I have stepped on their toes for doing my job properly and want to implicate me.”
He said that the chairman of the military court which tried him had declared him innocent but that the Naval authority had insisted he was guilty, but he challenged them to produce documents against him otherwise posterity will vindicate him.
