The Marine Tanker (MT) Team Tango of the Nigerian Navy surveillance team has arrested a ship bearing toxic cargo. The ship which was tracked down with Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) capability of the Nigerian Navy is currently under interrogation and would be promptly handed over to the appropriate agency for further action, the Navy said in a release.
Toxic substances including fuel and e-waste have been shipped into the country surreptitiously in the past but the Navy has of late stepped up monitoring on high sea leading to the interception of illegal bunkering ships and other vessels doing illegal business on the Nigerian deep sea corridors.
The anti-crude oil theft operations of the Nigerian Navy has also yielded results with the sustained patrol of the maritime area. On 29 Aug 16, a patrol team deployed by FOB BONNY raided an illegal refinery site at Boloba Creek in Bonny LGA of Rivers State. During the raid, the patrol team destroyed the illegal refinery, which had several storage tanks loaded with unquantifiable amount of stolen crude oil.
In a similar operation on 31 Aug 16, the patrol team arrested a barge suspected to be involved in COT at Creek 6 in Bonny LGA, Rivers State. The barge was laden with yet to be quantified stolen crude oil. No arrest was however made in both cases as the suspects fled the scene on sighting the patrol team.
