After an eight-month long court fight, Nigeria released 16 Indian sailors who had been jailed there.

Equatorial Guinea is responsible for the release of a crew of 16 Indian sailors who had been held in Nigeria for allegedly operating in Nigerian seas and attempting to export crude oil without clearance. The allegations of wrongdoing were made by Nigeria.

Kochi: Nigeria has finally released a crew of 16 Indian sailors who were imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for allegedly operating on Nigerian waters and attempting to export crude oil without approval. The crew was detained for allegedly operating on Nigerian waters and attempting to export crude oil without clearance.

Nigeria

After a protracted legal battle lasting several months, the court in Nigeria decided to withdraw all of the allegations against them. Three of the sixteen Indians came from the state of Kerala. Keralites included Chief Officer Captain Sanu Jose, Milton De Coth, and V Vijith, who was originally from Kollam. All three men were from Kochi. The dowry harassment case that Vismaya was involved in led to the death of her brother, Vijith, who then committed suicide.

The Norwegian-flagged MT Heroic Idun “was arrested by the Equatorial Guinea naval ship in international waters on 12th August 2022,” according to a statement that was made earlier by the crew members. According to the statement, there were a total of 26 crew members on board the vessel, and out of those, 16 were from India, 8 were from Sri Lanka, 1 was from Poland, and 1 was from the Philippines.

The ship made its way to Nigeria’s APCO Offshore Terminal on the 8th of August in order to stock up on crude oil. During the time that they had to wait for their turn, the crew of the “Heroic Idun” saw another ship coming closer. The crew made an effort to steer out of the region since they thought the approaching ship was a pirate vessel; nonetheless, the Guinean Navy soldiers were able to seize control of the vessel.

Because they lacked the proper technical authorization from the Navy and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the crew of the “Heroic Idun” had been earlier asked to leave the Nigerian Exclusive Economic Zone. This was due to the fact that they were attempting to load crude oil without the proper authorization.

The crew of the “Heroic Idun” sailed the vessel into international waters when they became concerned that the unidentified ship that had approached them might have been a pirate ship. A few of the people who were on the preceding ship approached the crew of the ship in question and claimed to be Navy officers. They expressed interest in examining the vessel. Because it had arrived without first activating the automated identification system, the ‘Heroic Idun’ also sounded an alarm as a precautionary measure. They were ultimately abandoned by a ship from Nigeria that had been shadowing them for some time.

However, on August 14, the “Heroic Idun” was stopped by the Guinea Navy, and the crew of the ship as well as the ship itself were taken captive. Passports and mobile phones belonging to the crew members were also taken into custody.

In September, the shipping business forked over a sizeable ransom to the government of Guinea in exchange for the release of the crew. However, rather than freeing the sailors, the Guinean authorities turned over the ship and its crew to the Nigerian authorities.

//