The Nigerian Navy (NN) has confirmed the arrest of a Supertanker – MV HEROIC IDUN – by Equatorial Guinea forces over alleged crude oil theft in Nigeria.
The tanker by the Central African country was arrested after it fled from Nigeria’s AKPO Oil Field when its activities were uncovered by operatives of the NN.
Confirming the arrest in a statement released yesterday, Naval Director of Information (DINFO) Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan said the feat was an indication of renewed collaboration between Gulf of Guinea (GoG) nations.
He also confirmed that the Supertanker with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 9858058 raised a false alarm that it was under pirates’ attack when NNS GONGOLA ordered the suspect vessel to sail to Bonny Fairway Buoy for interrogation.
Ayo-Vaughan said the Regional Centre for Maritime Security for West Africa (CRESMAO), Abidjan, also confirmed that the vessel raised a false alarm about an attempted boarding between 10 to 15 Nautical Mile (NM) of Akpo oil field in Nigeria to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC) Zone E and other international platforms.
“As a demonstration of the renewed cooperation and collaboration among the Gulf of Guinea nations, the Nigerian Navy welcomed with much satisfaction, the news of the arrest of MT HEROIC IDUN by the Equatorial-Guinean Navy (EGN) on 12 August 2022 barely four days after the supertanker assumed she had evaded arrest by the Nigerian Navy and also made false alarm of a sea robbery/pirate attack that never happened.
“Equatorial Guinea stopped the MV HEROIC IDUN on the afternoon of 12 August 2022, offshore the Island of Annobon,” Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said.
