The controversy trailing the disappearance of an oil-laden tanker, MT African Pride, appears to have taken a new twist. A Dutch firm, Strategic Shipping and Chartering B.V, based in Spijkenisse, the Netherland, believed to be the owner of the ship, has denied any link with the vessel.
But fresh facts have, however, emerged showing that the missing vessel was at a period owned and maintained by Strategic Shipping and Chartering B.V.
The controversial oil tanker allegedly set sail from the Lagos Fairway Buoy, where it was detained without its original crew made up of mainly Russians, Romanians, Polish and Nigerians, who faced trial in a Lagos High Court over illegal bunkering.
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, an official of the company simply identified as �Mark�, in the Netherlands, confirmed that the firm was a ship-owning company operating in the West Coast but said, �We have nothing to do with the vessel you mentioned.�
The unsuspecting official had earlier confirmed a list of vessels in the firm�s tankers fleet and their total DWT among which MT African Pride was listed.
The list include MT Ferrol (29,000 DWT), MT Andreas (20,000 DWT), MT Akuadasuo (20,000 DWT), MT Golden Sunrise (17,00 DWT), MT Intuition (16,500 DWT), MT Lady Star (16,500 DWT), MT Sea Ray 1 (16,500 DWT), MT Afro (15,500 DWT), MT Imperial (16,000 DWT) and MT Desert King (16,500 DWT).
These vessels, which are mainly deployed for trade in the West and Central African Coast, also include MT Magic Wave (15,000 DWT), MT Olympic Pride (11,500 DWT), MT Gulf Wind (10,500) and MT Stream (9,700 DWT).
The DWT for MT Leartis, MT Beffen, MT Celtic Terrier and MT Tavira, also owned by the giant shipping company, were not available.
This information was contained in a document titled, Position List of Strategic Tankers, which was e-mailed to a shipbroker on enquiry from Strategic Shipping and Chartering B.V and exclusively made available to our correspondent in Lagos.
Officials of the Royal Netherland Embassy in Abuja, who spoke with our correspondent on phone on Thursday on the status of Strategic Shipping demanded an �official letter� before information could be made available on the Dutch company.
�We are sorry, you have to write an official letter to us before we can give you any information on the company,� a receptionist told our correspondent on phone.
Sources in Lagos, however, argued that another MT African Pride, which is being managed by Ship and Shore Nigeria Limited with 1,500 metric tonnes dead weight tonnage and is still trading in the Nigerian waters could not be used for the illegal bunkering of 15,000 metric tonnes of stolen crude worth about N30 million.
The source said, �That vessel cannot trade in other areas beyond the West African Coast, especially in Nigeria because it is a single hull vessel, which class had been outlawed in Europe and America,� and urged the Federal Government to summon the owners of the vessel, who allegedly have six other tankers in the Nigerian coast, to produce the missing tanker.
Investigations by our correspondent at the Lloyd�s Register Nigeria Office in Apapa, Lagos, showed that although there are two vessels under the trade name MT African Pride, only one of them with 16,500 total dead weight tonnage and categorised as Mild St/Epoxy Shallow Draft carrier could be used to steal 15,000 barrels of crude.
The Lloyd�s Register is the international risk management and classification organisation with operations covering marine activities, management systems, land-based industries, railways, and oil and gas.
Officials at the Lloyd�s Register, who spoke to our correspondent on conditions of anonymity, claimed that they were under instructions not to disclose the details about the missing vessel although they admitted the tankers were in their ships� registers.
Part of the game plan to fence off any enquiry about the vessel was to ask for the International Maritime Organisation number or the registration number of the vessel, which are usually not available to persons or groups other than the owners of vessels, and payment of N5,000 before the information could be accessed.
Besides, the IMO number became effective on July 1, 2004, when the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code designed to protect ships and ports worldwide against possible terrorist attacks was launched worldwide.
Sources who spoke with our correspondent claimed that if the Federal Government was serious about tracking down the missing vessel the security agencies should detain one of the vessels that are managed by the Strategic Shipping line and demand that the fleeing MT African Pride be brought back before the vessel is released.
Master mariners, who spoke with our correspondent, observed that there were many lapses in the handling of the arrested vessel as they claimed that it was wrong to keep the vessel at the Fairway buoy on the high sea without being de-capacitated.
�The vessel ought to be detained in a sheltered water under the watchful eyes of the naval authorities and not at the Fairway buoy, where it does not require a pilot to sail out. That is a major security lapse, which we are paying for,� the source said.
Meanwhile, indications emerged on Thursday that the court martial of some top officers of the Nigerian Navy accused of complicity in the disappearance of the oil bunkering ship, M. T. African Pride, had been stalled.
The military court was scheduled to commence on Monday in Lagos following the submission of the report of an in-house Board of Inquiry to the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Samuel Afolayan.
Top officers who should have faced the military court included the Chief of Training and Operations; Rear Admiral Francis Agbiti, Flag Officer Commanding western Command; Rear Admiral Babatunde Kolawole; and the immediate FOC Western Command, Real Admiral Anthony Bob-Manuel.
A reliable source at the Navy Headquarters, Abuja, told our correspondent that the court martial was stalled "due to irreconcilable differences among top naval officers."
The source said, "until certain issues are trashed out, the court may not sit."
