file photo: An oil vessel

The Nigerian Navy Ship NWAMBA has rescued a merchant Tanker vessel with call sign MT VECTIS OSPREY from sea pirates who attacked her 20 nautical miles offshore of Bonny.

Commodore Christian Ezekobe, Director of Navy Information said in a statement on Thursday that the rescue operation was in response to a timely alert by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) to the Naval Regional Maritime Awareness Centre (RMAC).

Consequently, the war ship was promptly deployed to track down and rescue the vessel.

“The British flagged MT VECTIS OSPREY departed Bonny offshore terminal and came under pirate attack on Wednesday 17   August 2016.

“NNS NWAMBA engaged the attackers on approaching the vessel which made them to abandon their mission due to superior fire power. To this end, Naval special forces onboard the war ship embarked and rescued the crew who locked up themselves in a citadel in the merchant tanker.

“The crew and cargo of MT VECTIS OSPREY are safe while investigation has also commenced in order to unravel the circumstances of the attempted hijack, especially with regard to the current trend of involvement of crew members in attacks on their own vessels,” Commodore Ezekobe said in the statement.

The Navy however advised Ship owners to profile their crew before embarking them onboard to avoid situations in which some disgruntled crew members stage-manage attacks on their own vessels.