As part of the collaborative efforts to rid Nigeria and indeed the West African coastal area of the activities of terrorism and sea pirates, the Nigerian Army, freed a French sailor from pirates. According to reports, the ship Adour, an oil products tanker, was attacked by the pirates on the 13th June, 2013 about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Togo and the sailors were captured.
General Bata Dembiro, a military commander in charge of the coastal area, informed the media that the personnel of the Nigerian Navy and the French marines launched a joint attack on the captured vessel after the hijackers had seized it and were able to set free about 14 crewmen while the rescued sailor, Benjamin Elan was taken hostage to facilitate their escape.
“The rescued foreign ship worker was abducted in Togo aboard an oil tanker and brought to Bayelsa State (in Nigeria) by suspected kidnappers,” Dembiro was quoted as saying.
The pirates had taken Benjamin to a village in Bayelsa state where they took refuge. Fortunately, their presence had not escaped the vigilance of youths in the community who quickly alerted the relevant authorities. This helped in the rescue attempt by the army but the gang had fled the house before rescue group got to the place.
Reports state that Messrs. ST Management SAAM has not made any significant statement on the issue except to confirm that the ship had experienced an ‘incident’.
The impact of pirates on the West African coast line threatens to destabilize sea trading and way fare which is very likely to negatively on exports which the region is in dire need to promoting aggressively. This is not to state a similar trend on imports which has been a mainstay of a few francophone states in the region as well.
