The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has reported that an attempt had been made by pirates to board a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Guinea off Togo late last week.
At 20:53 local time on Thursday, August 28, NIMASA's C4I centre received an alert from the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade (MDAT) Gulf of Guinea Watchkeepers regarding an attempted boarding of the Malta-flagged chemical tanker Endo Ponente near Lome Port in Togo.
Intelligence gathered from the C4I centre later placed the vessel within Ghana's exclusive economic zone. The NIMASA special mission vessel DB Lagos, operated by the Nigerian Navy, was immediately alerted and deployed to the distressed vessel's last reported position.
During the attempted boarding, the tanker's crew retreated to the citadel in line with international best practice for ship security.
On Friday, August 29, a visit, board, search and seizure team of the Togolese National Navy boarded Endo Ponente and confirmed that all crewmembers were safe, with no material damage recorded on board.
The ship is now under the custody of the Togolese National Navy, which promptly reported the situation to the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre Zone E, Under the Yaoundé Architecture for maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, which covers Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Niger Republic.
Osagie Edward, NIMASA Deputy Director for Public Relations, said investigations are ongoing to establish the identity of the perpetrators.