LAGOS — President of the seven-man military court-martial trying three senior officers over the mysterious disappearance of bunkering vessel, MT, African Pride, Rear Admiral Joseph Ajayi yesterday assured that the court will wind up proceedings before Christmas holidays.
Admiral Ajayi told reporters after the day’s morning proceedings that at inauguration of the court, it was expected to round up sittings by October 30, but it failed to meet the deadline.
“In any court, we expect to have some delays and once the problems are resolved, the proceedings continued and I think that was what we have been doing. For now I cannot say precisely when the proceedings will end, but we will finish as soon as possible. I am working towards ending before Christmas.”
At yesterday’s proceedings, the 16th prosecution witness, Commodore Olukayode Biobaku who was the Director, Naval Intelligence told the court the security arrangements put in place to protect the ship after he had information that it was going to be tampered with.
Led in evidence by lead prosecutor, Brig.-Gen. Donatus Ikpomwen (rtd.), the witness recounted the series of operational meetings held by senior officers and pre-information of the disappearance of the vessel before and after it disappeared.
He said: “The incident that I recalled was that few weeks after the arrest of the MT African Pride in October 2003, I got information from my source indicating that some people were trying to tamper with product of MT African Pride.
“Based on this, I informed Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel and he was worried,” adding that there was a meeting held, where the issue was discussed and the Flag Officer Commanding, Rear Admiral Bob-Manuel “sought to know the state of security of the ship.”
The witness told the court that, he (FOC) was informed that there were three men guarding the ship and the FOC urged them to add to the security men, which later increased to 12. He also said that subsequently when the product (crude oil) was tampered with, he was also informed by the same source who initially told him of the plan to tamper with the product.
“I reported to the FOC but he expressed surprise. At that time arrangement was in progress to evacuate the crude oil in the vessel.”
