From FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa
There is a cloud of uncertainty over the whereabouts of 17 foreign and Nigerian oil workers kidnapped by suspected sea pirates in Bayelsa State.
The police authorities, the Nigerian Navy and the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, have refused to comment on the disappearance of the oil workers.
Checks indicated that 12 Pakistani and five Nigerians working for Val Oil Trading were attacked by suspected sea pirates on board an oil vessel, MT Matrix, and whisked to an unknown destination.
Investigations revealed that victims of the attack, which occurred along the deep sea between Bayelsa and Rivers states had been difficult to trace by naval personnel at the Forward Operational Base (FOB), Formoso.
However, security sources said the State Security Service (SSS), which had been investigating series of kidnappings in Bayelsa State had moved to investigate the attack.
Meanwhile, the Central Naval Command (CNC) has paraded 14 suspected oil thieves arrested along Brass and Sangana waterways after failing to produce a proper clearance from the CNC.
The Command Operation Officer, Commodore Emmanuel Okechukwu Enemor, who represented the Flag Officer Commanding, Rear Admiral Johnson Olutoyin, disclosed that the suspects were arrested by a naval team on routine patrol along the waterways.
According to him, the patrol team of FOB Formoso, which had intensified its patrol in Brass area after the visit of the chief of naval staff arrested seven crew members and the vessel registered MV Buyus on the grounds of forged documents. He noted that the documents produced by the crew members purported to have been issued by the CNC were fake, indicating that the vessel was on an illegal mission.
Enemor, shedding light on the operations of the CNC explained that crew members of the oil vessel, MT Henty Pioneer arrested by naval patrol team because the captain could not substantiate the intentions of the vessel for being in the area, had been released.
He stated that the chief of naval staff gave the approval for the release having considered the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of the vessel and the crew members.
He said they were, however, to write an undertaking that the vessel would be kept off the Brass-Akassa-Sangana areas until all her approvals, licenses, permits and other relevant documents were regularised.
Via: http://sunnewsonline.com/
