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Missing Vessel: Navy Captain Accepts Responsibility
By Abimbola Akosile and Oghenekevwe Laba, 11.17.2004
Commanding Officer (CO) of NNS Beecroft, Western Naval Command Navy Captain George Alily, at yesterday's sitting of the court martial of three senior navy officers allegedly involved in the disappearance of an oil bunkering vessel, MT African Pride, accepted responsibility for the missing vessel and apologised to the Navy and the nation. Alily who made the apology while testifying as a witness in the on-going trial of three Naval Admirals said as Co of NNS Beecoft, assigned the duty to secure MT African Pride, he is fully responsible for the vessel's disappearance. "I regret the disapperance of the vessel. It is most unfortunate. I apologise to the Navy and the nation over the missing vessel. I acknowledge that certain events happened under my watch which led to the disappearance of the vessel," Alily said. Under cross examination by Rear Admiral Lanre Amusa, defence counsel to Rear Admiral Kolawole, Alily said he is apologising because the vessel disappeared under his care. Alily said that as Commanding Officer of NNS Beecroft, he deployed competent and capable Naval officers to maintain security over MT African Pride when the vessel was arrested October 10, 2003. He said it was unfortunate that the Officer-in-Charge of Atlas Cove did not perform his duty as directed by him, adding that, that was why the vessel disappeared. Alily said as soon as he discovered that the vessel was missing, security personnel detailed to keep watch over the vessel were immediately replaced. He explained that the vessel was too big to be anchored at the Commando Pool that was why it was anchored in the high sea. Alily said when the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Kolawole heard about the missing vessel, he scolded the intelligence officers and immediately set up a Board of Inquiry (BOI), adding that he equally sent vessels and helicopters in search of the missing vessel. After Alily concluded his testimony, the court adjourned briefly and resumed at 1.10pm. On resumption, the prosecution counsel called on Staff Officer 1 Operation and Secretary OPS Commander Micheal Ebe to testify. When the prosecution demanded for some vital documents with respect to the investigative meeting, Ebe said he could not make them available because they are kept in a file in the Western Naval Command. Following disagreement between the prosecution counsel and the witness, the President of the Court, Rear Admiral Joseph Ajayi, halted the proceeding for a one hour lunch break. The court later resumed by 4.15 pm with the prosecution counsel thanking the court for coming to their assitance saying that the documents they were asking for were merely minutes of OPS meeting between July 26 and August 30, 2003. He said the first document is 13 pages while the second one is 14 pages. He sought for an adjournment till Friday to study the documents. However, Read Admiral Ajayi, adjourned hearing to Thursday (today) by 12 noon.
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