A fishing and research vessel donated by the Japanese Government to the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology (FCF&MT) in Lagos has been stolen by pirates.
This is even as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said last week that it has been able to trace the missing vessel to neighbouring Cameroun.
Investigation showed that the vessel named, Sarki Baraka, was a 1982 built Panama flagged vessel with IMO number 8103107, MMSI: 371759000 Call Sign: HO4222.
It has a Gross Tonnage of 1091 and Deadweight: 1200. The length Overall and Breadth Extreme is 68.58m × 12.5m
Rotimi Fashakin, executive director, Operations of NIMASA, confirmed that the vessel was donated to the college by the Japanese government for training of its cadets.
Fashakin said that the vessel was stolen from where it was anchored in Lagos.
He said when the agency realised that its vessel had been stolen; it notified NIMASA and moved to recover the stolen vessel.
He said the agency had moved swiftly into action and that he had constituted his Special Assistant and some staff to search the vessel.
“Oceanography just told us that their vessel was missing so we had to move in and because NIMASA is charged with ensuring and promoting indigenous shipping in Nigeria, we had to move in, and with the deployment of the right tools,” he said.
“There is a great collaboration in the shipping business, information sharing is one of the cardinal means of ensuring that global shipping is safe and secure.
Through that collaborative effort, we were able to get Cameroun telling us that the vessel was found in their country,” he stated.
A source very close to the school, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the name of the vessel as Sarki Baraka.
He said “It is a fishing and research vessel, but currently we don’t know where that vessel is anymore.”
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
