Maritime Police Command yesterday said it had arrested four Nigerians, who smuggled themselves into a Malaysia-bound cargo vessel. The stowaways are Ahmed Azeez (24), Tunde Yagba (33), Ajose Kehinde (33) and Adewale Sunday (25).
It was learnt that Sunday has been admitted into an undisclosed hospital because of an ulcerous wound. The Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Maritime Police Command, Muhammed Katsina, said upon interrogation, it was discovered that the particular route the suspects took was an easy corridor for human trafficking, drug peddling, gunrunning, piracy, smuggling and hostage taking.
He said: “From the account of the suspects, this had been a recurring phenomenon in the maritime environment as most of them claimed to have previously gone through this process to South Africa, Spain and Canada only to be deported.
“We will redesign the methodology of our operation by seating with the Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and other sister agencies to cover the maritime environment. So that whenever they want to use this corridor to commit crime, they will be arrested and prosecuted within the ambits of the law.”
One of the suspects, Azeez, said: “I had no option but to travel out of the country since I could not make it in Nigeria. I did not want to steal so I decided to travel. Although I was in South Africa before I was deported, I decided to try France after some of my friends who had earlier gone to France called me to come over. We did not steal the boat. We paid a fisherman N500 to ferry us across to the vessel.”
The mastermind of the group, Kehinde, said that in 2009, he travelled to Brazil but was later deported. He said he called the other three to join him. Yagba said: “It was Ajose (Kehinde) that called us together. I told my family, but they told me to desist. Since I had nothing doing, I decided to follow my friends.”
But Katsina said it was a case of selfhuman trafficking of four young Nigerians. He said: “They conspired with a criminal motive to travel out of the country without proper documentation. The suspects are all indigenes of Snake Island village behind Tincan Island Port, Lagos. They stole a canoe under the cover of darkness and paddled to a Malaysianbound cargo ship MV Maersk Casablanca.
“The vessel was berthed at Tincan Island Port. They trespassed into the vessel. They dived into the water and sneaked through the propeller into the manhole, where they hid themselves in a small compartment.
“Exactly 23 hours after the ship had sailed, my intelligence group from the Amphibious Ambush Squad (AAS), alerted me of the presence of some strange elements in the vessel. We quickly alerted our operatives at Onne Port, in collaboration with the men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) who played a commendable role and they were found and arrested. One of them (Adewale) was bleeding profusely as a result of injury he sustained in the process while sneaking into the vessel.”
