The Nigerian Navy (NN) on Thursday arrested a passenger vessel, MV CHIMBA EXPRESS, with 406 deportees onboard drawn from Mali, Niger, Benin, Nigeria and Togo, on Lagos waters.
This is just as the returnees, who were deported from different countries for offenses ranging from falsification of documents to robbery and drug trafficking, lamented the harsh treatment meted out to them in Gabon from where they were deported.

The Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT, Commodore Okon Eyo, who confirmed this said the vessel departed Libreville, Gabon, on April 20, was intercepted on April 25 on Lagos waters.
He said, “MV CHIMBA EXPRESS is a cargo and passenger vessel that regularly traverses parts of West and Central Africa through countries such as Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and Sao Tome and Principe among others.
“The vessel departed Gabon laden with cargo, regular and deportee passengers of Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger and Malian Nationalities.
“The vessel was scheduled to arrive Benin to disembark both regular and deportee passengers from Benin, Togo, Mali and Niger, thereafter proceed to Calabar to disembark Nigerian deportees, regular passengers and their cargoes.
“However, in a twist of the event, the vessel arrive Lagos bar on April 25. The vessel had about 406 persons on-board from Togo, Benin, Niger, Mali and Nigeria.
“The total number of Nigerians on-board and whether or not the vessel did berth in Benin is yet to be confirmed, but will be determined shortly and among the Nigerians are 18 deported returnees.”
Eyo said the charterer of the vessel identified as Mubashiu Lawal from Republic of Benin and some other agents, claimed that they had made contact with port control to get permission to come in, but nothing to that effect was seen by the navy.

He added, “This was yet to be granted as at the time of their arrest and it was also gathered that the international passports of the passengers were with the agents who claimed to be processing them.
“It was also obvious that there was no formal contact at governmental levels for the delivery of the deportees or returnees. However, there is unconfirmed report that the Nigerian Embassy in Libreville was aware of the deportation.”
The commander said efforts were made to determine the history-trail of the vessel, using the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability (RMAC) which showed that it does not operate an active Automatic identification System (AIS).
“Additionally, the Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) obtained from the ships documents indicates that the vessel has no MMSI.
“However, when searched with the International Maritime Organisation number, the vessel’s identity was displayed as RAMADAN IV and classified as a passenger vessel registered in HONDURAS with a tonnage of about 677.
“This information about the class of the vessel and tonnage matched that of CHIMBA EXPRESS,” he said.
Eyo who said that apart from the issue of unauthorised entry, which was the subject of investigation, the vessel was also in breach of absence of AIS.
“MV CHIMBA EXPRESS’s gross tonnage is about 677 tonnes. The international law mandates vessel of more than 350 tonnages to install AIS on-board which shows it was operating in violation of the law.
“MV CHIMBA EXPRESS visual identity was also found to be mismatched with its registered name which was identified as RAMADAN IV.
“The ship document also shows that the ship was flagged at Cameroon as against the electronic documentation of registration in HONDURAS which is contrary to the provision of the International Maritime Act,” he said.
Eyo said it would be plausible to conclude that the vessel’s agenda was to dump the passengers in Nigeria, adding that it would have followed the original passage plan.
He also said that relevant agencies were working together to unravel and deal with the issues.
“To this end, the relevant agencies, Nigerian Navy, NIMASA, Immigration, Customs and DSS will be working together to unravel the motives behind the whole affair as well as deal with other associated issues,” he said.