Three of the16 Indian sailors, released by Nigerian authorities after a nine-month detention on accusation of oil theft, have arrived home at Kochi (also called Cochin) Airport in Kerala where they were welcomed with garlands by their families and Indian Authorities.
They recounted their ordeal and said they were forced to drink toilet water while in detention.
Their ship, M T Heroic Idun, was anchored off Bonny Port for the last six months, under the custody of Nigerian Navy. Their mobile phones were seized and kept in a locker in the ship.
Once in 15 days, the phones were given back to them and they were allowed to make three to five-minute calls to their families only in English language so that their Nigerian guards can understand them.
They say they were earlier detained in Equatorial Guinea for three months and were shut in a congested room and deprived proper food and water. Some of them fell sick with malaria and typhoid fever and were moved back into the ship, anchored at the Port of Luba, in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.
While in Nigeria, on the intervention of India’s Ministry of External Affairs and High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, G. Balasubramanian, the crew were allowed to remain on board the ship instead of being taken to a detention centre on land, and were provided with food and other supplies.
The ship had 26 crew including the 16 Indians, eight Sri Lankans, a Polish national and a Filipino.
Their story is that they were in Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria to lift crude oil.
While in Nigerian waters, they were approached by a Nigerian naval vessel which they mistook for pirates. They sounded a pirate attack alarm and fled into international waters, off Equatorial Guinea.
They were arrested by the security agents there and were detained but, later handed over to the Nigerian Navy.
Nigerian officials say the tanker with 26 foreign crew on board resisted arrest by the Nigerian Navy ship, Gongola, near the Apu oilfield, offshore Nigeria, in August, 2022.
The crude carrier and the foreigners were brought back to Nigeria and prosecuted in November, 2022.
The case was mentioned for trial in Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, in January, 2023.
The 26 foreign crew pleaded guilty and entered a plea bargain with the Federal Government of Nigeria and voluntarily, agreed to make restitution.
The vessel and its owners were to pay fines and restitution and make an apology in print and electronic media as well as on Llyod’s List, while the Nigerian government agreed not to further prosecute the vessel, her owners, or her crew in the matter.
On April 28, 2023 the federal court in Nigeria struck out the case, but the release was delayed pending payment of the fine by the ship owner, Norway’s OSM Maritime Group.
The vessel, having satisfied the conditions of the plea bargain was handed over officially to the owners, offshore in the Atlantic coast of Rivers State, Nigeria, on Saturday, May 27, 2023.
The handing over was performed by the Commanding Officer, Forward Operating Base, Bonny, Navy Captain Mohammed Adamu, who said the vessel was charged under the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act 2019.
He said the owners of the vessel apologised in the Lloyd’s List on May 12, 2023 and Punch Newspaper (Page 22) on May 18, 2023.
He said the vessel also regretted the false pirate attack alarm it raised on August 7, 2022 and avoiding arrest by a Nigerian Navy ship.
The amount paid as fine and for restitution was not disclosed.
On release, the ship sailed to Cape Town in South Africa on 7 June, 2023 from where three of the Indian crew members flew home on June 10, 2023 to Kochi (Cochin) airport in Kerala.
The Nigerian Navy has not reacted to the torture claims of the freed Indian sailors.
Water-borme diseases caused by pathogens from human waste that contaminate drinking water common in Nigeria are: Cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, schistosomiasis (bilharzia) and worm infections.
photo credit: kerala mariners society
