Thread by @NigeriaGov

#NigerianNavy Headquarters holding a Press Conference this morning, to correct falsehoods and misconceptions on the interception of MT HEROIC IDUN within Nigeria’s maritime waters, on Aug 8, 2022. Chief of Policy & Plans, Rear Admiral S. Garba, briefing.

Highlights to follow:

NN: The Crude Oil Tanker, MT HEROIC IDUN, DID NOT lift any crude oil from the Akpo Oilfield. It was intercepted by the Nigerian Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness Facility, around midnight August 7/8, 2022, while still approaching the Single Buoy Mooring within the Akpo Oilfield.

NN: The #NigerianNavy’s Modus Operandi is to monitor, through its Maritime Domain Awareness System, all crude oil tankers that approach loading terminals, & to verify that they possess the necessary authorization to load. Vessels without requisite permits are arrested & detained.

NN: The Nigerian Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness Facility immediately probed the legitimacy of MT HEROIC IDUN’s presence in Akpo Oilfield. The outcome of the relevant enquiries from the controlling agency, @nnpclimited, revealed the vessel was NOT cleared to be in the Oilfield.

This revelation necessitated the deployment of the Nigerian Navy Inshore Patrol Craft, NNS GONGOLA, to investigate the super tanker’s activities at Akpo, on August 8, 2022. NNS GONGOLA arrived Akpo Oilfield and interrogated MT HEROIC IDUN, asking critical questions.

NN: The Captain of MT HEROIC IDUN confirmed that the vessel was without relevant clearance to operate in the Field. In line with normal procedure, the vessel was ordered to turn around and follow NNS GONGOLA to Bonny Anchorage.

However, the Captain, after contacting the Master/Shipping Agent, refused to cooperate with NNS GONGOLA, and stated that she had been told not to take directives from the Nigerian Navy Ship.

NN: Thereafter, she engaged full speed southwards towards the São Tomé and Principe maritime area, in a bid to evade arrest.

NN: Apart from resisting lawful arrest, the captain of the vessel made a broadcast of false piracy attack to the IMB Piracy Reporting Center, to mislead mariners that NNS GONGOLA was a pirate vessel, possibly to concoct an alibi for her desperate action.

Following the piracy alert, the Nigerian Navy through international collaboration alerted relevant piracy reporting centers, through the West Africa Regional Maritime Security Centre (CRESMAO) and ECOWAS ZONE E Cotonou, headed by Nigerian Navy Officers, …

… for the alert to be cancelled immediately, which was done.

Note that Nigeria has NOT recorded ANY piracy attack in its waters in over one year.

Hence the mischievous act of false reporting by MT HEROIC IDUN was clearly aimed at tarnishing image of Nigeria’s maritime domain.

The brazen act of defiance to constituted authority by the Captain of the vessel necessitated the Nigerian Navy to invoke the collaboration of neighboring Equatorial Guinea, through the Yaoundé Architecture, to arrest the vessel, within Equatorial Guinea waters.

The Nigerian Navy Maritime Surveillance Facility was used to track and constantly update the Equatorial Guinea Navy on the location of the rogue vessel. The EG Amphibious Ship, CAPTAIN DAVID, was therefore vectored to intercept and arrest MT HEROIC IDUN on Aug 12, 2022.

The vessel is currently being held at the Luba Anchorage in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, where the country is conducting own investigations, while Nigeria awaits the diplomatic procedures for handing over the vessel to the Nigerian Navy.