BARELY one week after a Ukrainian plane loaded with arms and ammunition was impounded in Kano, the Nigerian Navy, on the orders of the Presidency, has grounded two ships carrying arms and cartridges, this time at the old Calabar Port, Nigerian Tribune can report.
The naval authorities are currently in search of the third ship said to have avoided arrest and escaped to the Parrot Island en route to the high seas with the help of a tugboat provided for it to that effect.
Two of the ships impounded by the Nigerian Navy bear the names MV Chinedu and MV Chinyere while the one at large is named MV Chidinma. They were said to have taken off from Togo and Equitorial Guinea ports at different times before being nabbed.
The three ships, according to security sources, were carrying 82 of 40-foot containers containing arms and cartridges neatly tucked in second-hand clothing materials and shoes. The ships reportedly arrived in Nigeria on June 13.
According to investigation, while MV Chinedu carried 45 containers loaded with the items, MV Chinyere had a load of 22 containers and MV Chidinma, 15. All were said to be owned by a business tycoon not named.
Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that MV Chinedu and MV Chinyere had berthed at the Federal Inland Waterways, Calabar, and were to unload at the old Calabar Port, not too far from the Customs and Police Marine Jetty, and along Naval Headquarters before they were arrested on Thursday, June 18, following a tip-off.
The naval authorities, when contacted, confirmed the arrest of two of the suspected ships although no official was prepared to disclose the contents.
The Director of Navy Information, Commodore A Nabaida, told the Nigerian Tribune that the naval authorities truly arrested two ships in Calabar, but was quick to add that the Navy was yet to carry out an inspection of the ships to ascertain the contents.
Efforts by the owner of the ships to secure comfortable berthing places for them at the Calabar dockyard ahead of their arrival from Togo and Equitorial Guinea ports, according to sources, had alerted the security agencies which in turn briefed the Presidency, which ordered the impoundment of the ships.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that ships loaded with weapons, mostly pump action, had been unloaded at the same old Calabar port before. No less than 30 containers with contraband were said to have been unloaded in the past seven months.
The closeness of the port to Aba, which has one of the largest open markets in West Africa, has been given as the reason the old Calabar Port has been a good attraction for ships dealing in arms and ammunition, most of which are said to have been routed to the Niger Delta and some areas in the South-East.
Nigeria has, of late, been battling with the menace of militant activities in the Niger Delta.