Eight Nigerian pirates in custody
The eight Nigerian suspected pirates arrested in the territorial waters of Ghana for hijacking a commercial oil tanker in Nigeria were yesterday remanded in police custody by the Adjabeng Magistrate’s Court in Accra.
Advertisement
The remand is to give the police more time to carry out investigations into the case.
The eight men, armed with three AK 47 rifles, one pump action gun and a K2 rifle, attacked the Nigerian-flagged vessel, the MT Mariam, loaded with 1,500 metric tonnes of low petroleum fuel oil estimated at US$1.5 million, on January 17, 2015.
They took the nine-man crew aboard the ship hostage and offloaded the cargo onto another vessel.
Their operation was foiled when they were arrested by the Ghana Navy, who had responded to a distress call.
The pirates are: Molih Williams, Molih Klinsman, Peggy Aki, Ebiyaibo Amos, David Jacobs, Apetimiyi Onyinie, Piano Saniyo and Picolo John.
Charges
They are charged with two counts of conspiracy and piracy but their pleas were not taken.
They will reappear on February 11, 2015.
The remand of the accused persons came after the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Iddrissu Fuseini, had asked the court, presided over by Ms Effua Sackey, to remand them to enable the police to complete their investigations into the case.
Counsel for the accused persons, Mr Uche Nwosu, asked the prosecution to complete its investigations on time.
He prayed the court to disregard the prosecution’s description of the accused persons as pirates.
Background
The complainant in the case is the Chief Executive Officer of Maxweir Limited, which operates the MT Mariam, while the eight pirates are all unemployed men from Nigeria.
On January 17, 2015, the MT Mariam set sail from Lagos in Nigeria to Lome in Togo.
The accused persons attacked the crew of the MT Mariam, offloaded the cargo onto another vessel and sped off.
The prosecution said the alleged stealing of the oil took five hours and all that while the crew members had been taken hostage and subjected to inhumane treatment.
“The crew members were assaulted with the butts of the weapons, had their movement restricted and were prevented from communicating with one another,” it stated.
Their operation was foiled when they were arrested by the Ghana Navy in Ghana’s territorial waters.