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Last Updated: Friday, November 12th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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Missing ship: Vital documents tampered with, witness alleges
By Alex Oni and
Sebastine Ebhuomhan
The Rear Admiral Joseph Ajayi-led court-martial, trying three top naval chiefs over the mysterious disappearance
of ocean vessel- MT African Pride, on Thursday heard how vital documents in the file of the missing ship were tampered
with.
The witness, Commander Etim Effiong Edifit (prosecution witness 10), who is Staff Officer (operations) at the Navy
Headquarters, identified Rear Admiral Francis Agbiti, one of the naval chiefs standing trial, as his immediate
boss.
The other two officers facing the court-martial are Rear Admiral Samuel Kolawole and Rear Admiral Anthony Bob-Manuel.
In his evidence-in-chief, Edifit said his job includes receiving and treating mails from the presidency, office
of the Chief of Naval Staff, matters relating to arrest and detention of vessels and such other duties as delegated
by the Chief of Naval Staff.
He identified the file on missing ships as one of the many files that passed through his table in the cause of
his duty.
Despite repeated objection by counsel to Rear Admiral Agbiti, Mr. Paul Harris Ogbole, the tribunal eventually admitted
the entire file as exhibit Q.
Let in evidence by the prosecution, Edifit identified a letter in folio 8 of exhibit Q, titled �Withdrawal of Naval
Persons from Arrested Vessels.�
He noted that the first letter, dated June 18, 2004, and signed by one A.A. Dacosta stated inter-alia: �I am directed
to request for the withdrawal of ratings from the arrested vessel- M.T African Pride. Arrangements should be speedily
concluded for handing over to the Nigeria Police Force.�
The second letter dated June 8, 2004, signed by J. Jatau, for Commanding Officer, Western Naval Command (WNC) ordered
the �evacuation of PPMS� from some vehicles arrested for bunkering�.
The letter further stated that the navy maintained the presence of rating on the seized ships under tedious condition
and as such recommended the evacuation of ratings as the patrol ship supplying the ships food was no longer functioning
adding, �it was therefore requested that naval personnel aboard the vessels be withdrawn immediately.�
Commander Edifit said he came across the first letter in the cause of his duty but was surprised when the navy
high command summoned him and asked him how the second letter got into the file and he replied he never saw or
worked on the letter and did not know how it was smuggled into the file.
Said Edifit, �I made a recommendation on the first letter and it was accepted by the Chief of Naval Staff. But
unfortunately, my recommendation could not be found in the missing ship file.�
Edifit also alleged that there were serious alterations and re-numbering of pages in the file, concluding that
the file was not the same file he worked on as it had been seriously tinkered with.
Lawyer to Rear Admiral Agbiti, Mr. Paul Harris Ogbole made an application that the tribunal should order that the
file be duplicated and a copy made available to the defence because �this is the only way we can defend our clients
effectively.�
The application was however over-ruled by the tribunal on the ground of �security reasons.� Consequently, the tribunal
adjourned for two hours to enable the defence counsels to go through the file.
Earlier on, Commander I.D. Ikoli, Command Intelligence Officer (CIO) of Western Naval Command, Beecroft, had testified
that an observation by the base Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Adekunle Oladipo, that the position of the ship
was not safe and should be moved closer to the base for proper monitoring was ignored by the Flag Officer Commanding
(FOC) Western Naval Command.
�At a stage, diplomats from the Russian Embassy came to visit the ship and eventually were allowed to go on board.
I observed that the visit was with permission. But it was a security threat. Three days after the visit, the ship
was discovered missing.�
However, on cross-examination, he said he was not aware if any of the accused connived with anybody over the missing
ship. �I wouldn�t know if the Flag Officer Commanding was expecting the Russians, but they saw the commanding officer.�
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