Nigerian Navy Declares Piracy Mastermind Wanted

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Nigerian Navy has declared an alleged mastermind of piracy, Mr. Mr. Charles Ekpemefumor, wanted for the hijack of a vessel, Mt. Maximus, with 18 crew members in February this year.

The Director of Information (DINFO), Commodore Christian Ezekobe, said in a statement on Thursday that investigation by the Navy linked Ekpemefumor who is also known and acknowledged as Charles Parker or Captain Charles Agaba, to the said hijack

“It was earlier reported that a vessel, MT MAXIMUS with 18 crew members and carrying 4,368.203MT of Gas Oil was hijacked on February 11, 2016 by a group of suspected pirates off Cote d’Ivoire waters. Consequently, the Nigerian Navy deployed for rescue operations.

“The vessel was eventually rescued on 19 February 2016 within Sao Tome waters 320 nautical miles (nm) off the Nigerian coast. During the rescue operation, 6 pirates were arrested, while one of them was killed. Some items were recovered from the pirates including weapons and mobile telephones”, Ezekobe stated.

However, he said, in the course of investigations, it was revealed that on 17 February 2016 at about 10pm, while the vessel was still hijacked, a GSM phone number +2348170000979 called Inmarsat Satellite Phone number +8821644414815 onboard MT MAXIMUS.

“On further analysis, it was discovered that the GSM phone number belongs to one MR CHARLES EKPEMEFUMOR aka Charles Parker or Captain Charles Agaba. It was also revealed by the arrested pirates that Charles Parker is the mastermind of the hijack attack on the MT MAXIMUS,” he said.

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