No
fewer than twelve people, eleven of which are Nigerians and a Ghanaian, were
recently rescued from suffocation on the high seas while attempting to migrate
to Europe via a merchant vessel, MV African Osprey.
The
stowaways, who worked either as Ship Rats or Tally Clerks inside visiting
merchant vessels at the Apapa Ports, Lagos State as casual were said to have
refused to disembark from the ship after they had finished their work, instead,
the newspaper learnt, hid in the vessel even when they did not know which part
of Europe it was headed to.
According
to sources, after they successfully loaded and offloaded MV African Osprey
after it had berthed at Apapa lasting days, the twelve men whose names were
given as Boniface Douglas, the Ghanaian, and Mustapha Ayinla, Bernard Amadi,
Gideon Azenabor, Isaac Delight, Daniel Timothy, Justice Agburum, Anthony
Oladipupo, Emma Okon, Idowu Adeyemi, Philip Israel and Holly Osatwie, illegally
remained the vessel. After they were caught, they confessed to surviving
through the period the journey lasted by eating garri, a Nigerian staple food,
bags of pure water, gala sausage and baked floor otherwise known in Nigeria as
Chin Chin.
It
was gathered that the men hid onboard the vessel at the basement area where
some dangerous industrial chemical substances brought in by the ship were
loaded unknown to crew and other Port officials.
According
to Port sources the ship which was heading to Spain, had set sail from Lagos
into the blue ocean sea with the men full of hopes until they could no longer
cope with the fervent heat emanating from the engine of the ship and the
offensive ordour of the chemical storehouse. It was gathered that in a bid to
ward off the threat of the offensive and poisonous chemical, the stowaways had
tried to cover their noses and entire bodies with their cloths and some other
thick clothing they had smuggled into the vessel, but after the third day, they
could not hold on any longer and so began to bang at the huge storehouse steel
door. As fate would have it, one of the crew members on board the ship walked
past the cellar and heard the noise coming from there. It was the crew member
who raised alarm leading to their rescue, the newspaper gathered.
Following
the discovery of the stowaways, the ship reportedly made a U-turn and headed
back to the Lagos Port and on Tuesday, May 20, 2014, and handed over the men to
the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA). Only recently, the men were handed over to the Nigerian Immigration
Service (NIS) for further investigations. One of the suspects, Osatwie, 24,
told the newspaper that he has a child and that his wife resides in Spain.
Osatwie told reporters that they overheard the crew members during a discussion
that the ship was heading to Spain. “I learnt trailer driving while I was in
Benin, Edo State, and in the last five years tried to secure a job but they
would always ask me to bring money before I am employed. I, then, came to Lagos
where I secured appointment with a company at the Ports. I started working
inside ship as a cleaner. We listened to their Spanish language and understood
that they were going back to Spain. That was how we decided to join the ship,”
he said.
In
an interview, Douglas, the Ghanaian, revealed that the attempt was his sixth.
Nigerian born, Douglas claimed he did not pay any money to embark on the trip.
“I am here in Nigerian to struggle. I was born here. My father is late. I work
in the Ports as casual and sneaked into the ship on Sunday night together with
these other people. We all met ourselves inside the ship. We worked inside the
ship and passed urine in polythene bags, tie them and throw away,” he said.
Douglas revealed that he had been deported from Brazil, Guinea Conakry, Togo,
Cote d’Ivoire and Namibia before this one.
For
24-year-old Agburum, who claimed that the botched effort was his first, he took
ill moments after the cellar doors were shot behind them. According to him he
was tempted to embark on the trip because some of his friends travelled
overseas through the same means. “On the night we sneaked in, I had a running
stomach. I took several polythene bags because I was told that we would not
come out once we have entered. I passed faeces all through the night in
polythene bags, as the nauseating feeling aggravated my condition. I almost
died. I only managed to eat eight wraps of sausage rolls out of the 15 I went
in with. I do not intend to attempt it again because it was not a pleasant
experience,” he said.
Speaking
to journalists during the handover of the suspects, Commander, NNS Beecroft,
Comodore Ovenseri Uwadiae, confirmed the arrest of the suspects and said they
were handed over to Immigration after approval was obtained from the Naval
Headquarters, in Abuja. Also speaking, the Flag Officer Commanding, Western
Naval Command, Rear Admiral Ilesanmi Alade, took a scolded the stowaways for
risking their lives and said they had God to thank as, according to him, they
would have died on the way. “I think you people should thank your stars because
you could have been dead by now with the offensive chemical ordour inside the
place you hid. There are many opportunities here in Nigeria. There is nothing
you need to go out of the country to do,” Admiral Alade said. The leader of the
Immigrations team, Assistant Comptroller of Immigrations, Odey Adapoyi, in his
remarks assured Nigerians that adequate steps were being taken to protect the
nation’s borders from illegal emigrants.
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