IG Denies Knowledge of Missing Vessel
Challenges Naval chief to produce evidence of handover
Bunkering
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja
Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, yesterday denied custody of the 21 bunkering vessels which Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Sunday Afolayan alleged his men handed over to the police on the directive of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Balogun who appeared before the House of Representatives Committees investigating the disappearance of one of the arrested bunkering ship, "M. T. African Pride" said at no time did the naval boss transfer custody of any ship to him.
He challenged Afolayan to produce evidence to prove that he transferred any of the ships and insisted that there was no way such handover would go undocumented.
Balogun noted that he was always disturbed by the effect of bunkering on the economy and has been doing many things to ensure that bunkerers no more bled the economy.
He pointed out that he stopped the attempt to release two vessels, M. T. Tina and M. T Glory also under arrest through a legal advice from the Enugu office of the Ministry of Justice.
He said the legal advice had directed him to release the vessels and the suspects in his custody. The request, he noted, alarmed him and he contacted President Obasanjo who wrote the Attorney General of the Federation directing that the writer of the legal advice be queried.
He admitted that after the President had in a meeting in Aso Rock, directed that the arrested illegal bunkerers be handed over to the police with the vessels pending when the Ministry of Transport would take them over, some of the suspects were handed over to the police for prosecution but the vessels were not.
He contended that even the Naval chief knew that the police did not have anything to do with the vessels. He said that explains why Afolayan is court martialling his men whom he said were in a better position to explain what happened to the vessel.
Balogun said after the presidential directive, he set up an investigation team led by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo who went to Lagos to take custody of the suspects and the ship.
He disclosed that the Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Bob Manuel refused to oblige them on the excuse that he was yet to receive a signal from Naval Headquarters.
Following that exchange, Balogun said Onovo returned to Abuja with his team and went to the Naval Headquarters to complain before they were given a copy of the signal by one Agbiti. The signal had no. NHQ/MSO/00/05/02/04.
He also tendered another letter to the Police which stated that the Navy would keep custody of the ships but release the suspects. When the team returned to Lagos, he said the FOC Western Naval Command agreed to release the suspects to the police but not the vessels.
Balogun also stated that the Navy used its discretion to decide on how many of the suspects should be left on board the seized bunkering vessels for maintenance works. Out of the 22 suspects on board the African Pride, the Navy handed over 15 to the police and left seven on board. Out of the 10 suspects on board M.T Efunyan, all were handed over while the 10 out of 12 on board "Capricon", were handed over. Four out of six suspects on board "Destiny" were given to the police and two out of the six on board "Berlino" were handed over to the police.
"M. T. African Pride reported missing by the Navy was never and I repeat, never in the custody of the police. At no time were any of the ships taken over by the police. It is not even a question of African Pride, all the vessels have always been with the Navy.
"If anybody says he handed over a ship to me, let him produce the handing over note because there is no way the hand over of such magnitude can take place without a handing over note. The signals from the Headquarters are very clear. Bage wrote the letter and Agbiti delivered the letters.
"The vessels in question were at the high seas where the Police have no access to them. There is no part of the Constitution that allows the police to operate on the high seas. I have maximum respect for the CNS and I raised these issues with him. The Navy deployed helicopters and ships to trace the African Pride and it was on the pages of the newspapers that I read it. If the ship had not been in their custody why did they deploy ships and helicopters to search for it?'" he concluded.
He also told the House that on August 17, the CNS told him in a telephone discussion that he smelt a rat over the issue and was suspecting some naval personnel.
He also exhibited an affidavit deposed to in Lagos yesterday morning by one John Ama from Etudoh chambers that some Russians were taken to the African Pride some days before it disappeared from Nigerian waters.
He however could not say why he did not report to President Obasanjo when the Navy refused to release the vessels with the suspects to him. The only explanation was that he did not want to clash with the Navy over the custody when the police did not have vessels that could be put to sea to guard the seized vessels.
M.T. African Pride was a bunkering ship seized by the Nigerian Navy with 15,000 tonnes of crude oil illegally siphoned from the nation's reserve. The ship which was arrested November last year was said to have been under the custody of the Navy until January 29 when in a meeting with Balogun, Afolayan, Nuhu Ribadu of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) among others. Obasanjo ordered that the police should take over the investigation of the case as well as the suspects and vessels in question.
It was later discovered that the vessel had been missing from the place it had been kept and this was followed by controversies over what happened to the crude oil on board.
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