How Turkish ship was attacked by Nigerian pirates — Ghana Navy

The Ghanaian Navy has shed light on how Turkey flagged ship; MV PAKSOY-1 was attacked recently by Nigerian pirates.

Recall that, daredevil pirates attacked the cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria more than one week ago. In the attack, 10 sailors, all Turkish nationals were taken hostage for ransom. Turkey’s foreign ministry had said that, after the pirates left the ship, it was taken to Ghana’s Tema port.

According to the operators, the ship was sailing without freight from Cameroon’s port city of Douala to Abidjan in Ivory Coast when the pirates boarded the ship in the Gulf of Guinea.

But, Ghanaian navy confirmed that its personnel rescued and brought the Turkish ship ashore after the attack.

According to the report, the Ghanaian navy crew members who were on the GNS EHWOR, conducting routine patrols at sea at the time, swiftly responded to the situation and offered assistance to MV PAKSOY-1, which was attacked in Nigerian waters, while enroute to Côte d’Ivoire, after discharging her cargo (fertilizer) in Douala, Cameroun, from Morocco.

The Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) the Eastern Naval Command, Commodore James Osei Kontoh, told the Ghana News Agency that, the vessel was attacked by about six armed pirates.

He said: “They came with a speed boat, boarded the vessel and took away 10 Turkish crew members, and later abandoned the ship.
Commodore Kontoh stated that the alleged pirates fired and destroyed most of the navigational equipment at the bridge, which totally crippled the vessel.

He said they then took away the 10 crew members at gunpoint and abandoned the ship at about 2300 hours, leaving 8 crew members on-board, on Saturday, 13 July 2019.

The vessel was subsequently escorted to Tema by GNS EHWOR on Monday, 15 July 2019 and was currently safe at the Tema Anchorage.
The FOC indicated that on 17 July 2019, he met with the Turkish Ambassador, and some security agencies in the Ghana maritime sector, to discuss the perennial problem of piracy.