Group, NLNG Tango Over Burnt Fishing Trawler, Missing Seafarers

Abiola Seun |

The Nigerian Trawler Owners’ Association (NITOA) and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) clashed over a burnt fishing trawler, MV Orc IV that was gutted by fire off Bonny channel, Rivers State recently.

Speaking with journalists against the backdrop of the fire outbreak, president of NITOA, Akinsola Amire accused the NLNG of not going to the site of the fire outbreak to rescue the situation as claimed.

But, in a statement made available to newsmen, the NLNG Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, NLNG Andy Odeh said the claims by the trawler owners are false and misleading.

According to the NITOA president, when the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was contacted about the incident, it claimed to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NLNG on occasion of fire incident but instead of NLNG to salvage the situation, it was asking for a contract before it could carry out the salvage operations.

“NLNG claimed to have gone to the vessel location and reported that the vessel was beyond salvage, meanwhile they did not get to the location of the incident but later asked to sign a contract before the salvage operations could be carried out,” Amire alleged.

He said, “We must call a spade a spade. It is me today, it can be anybody tomorrow. Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said it contacted NLNG and NLNG said it was beyond salvage but they never left for anywhere then the second day, somebody was asking for a contract.

“Thank God that we didn’t totally lose the vessel and unfortunately, we are still looking for two crew members but probably if there was a response in quick time, it might not be as bad as it came to be.

But, in a swift reaction to the claim of the Trawler owners, NLNG said they responded after a distress call by a trawler 45 Kilometres SW of Bonny Fairway Buoy on February 7, 2019.

Odeh said, “We are aware of claims made by the some persons with links to a trawler association regarding Nigeria LNG Limited’s response to a distress call by a trawler 45 Kilometres SW of Bonny Fairway Buoy.

“NLNG hereby set the records straight with the following that the claims by these persons and any claim that NLNG failed to respond to a distress call are false and misleading.

“On receiving the distress call at around 2107hrs on February 6, 2019, we responded by sending out a long range security boat to the location. On getting there, the crew of the long range boat found other sister vessels engaged in rescuing the crew of the distressed trawler boat. The boat returned to base after confirming that the trawler boat crew had been rescued by sister vessels.

“At 1320hrs on February 7, 2019, after reports of a fishing boat on fire in the same location, NLNG sent a tug boat with firefighting capabilities and two security boats. The tugboat put out the fire and the crew of the security boats doused small fires in the fish hold,” the statement read.