Indian sailors to finally return home after nine months of detention in Nigeria
Sixteen Indian seafarers who were detained for nine months in Nigeria will soon be returning to their home country.
Their vessel, the MV Heroic Idun, was released on Sunday by the Nigerian authorities and is on its way to Cape Town, South Africa. The Indian sailors onboard the Norwegian vessel will travel to India from there and reach their home country on 7 June.
On 12 August last year, the vessel was stopped by a naval ship off Equatorial Guinea in international waters. Reports said the MV Heroic Idun was on its way to pick up crude oil from Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.
There are 26 sailors on the vessel and 16 of them are from India. The others are from the Philippines, Poland and Sri Lanka.
Nigerian authorities had alleged that the ship’s crew stole crude oil from their port. When a naval patrol ship started chasing MV Heroin Idun, the vessel didn’t stop under the assumption that a pirate boat was in pursuit, local media reported.
In November last year, authorities in Equatorial Guinea handed over custody of the ship and the sailors to Nigeria. They were reportedly charged with conspiracy, evasion of lawful interception and unlawful export of crude oil.
On 28 April, the sailors were acquitted of all charges after a federal court in Nigeria ordered the release of the ship and the seafarers. But the owner of the vessel, Norway’s OSM Maritime Group, was fined for unauthorised entry into Nigerian waters.
The company took time to pay the fine which caused a delay in the vessel’s voyage to Cape Town.
Nigerian Navy said in a statement: “On its part, the Federal Government agreed not to further criminally prosecute and/or investigate the vessel, her owners, charterers or her crew in the matter of her crime against the State.”
“The anxiety over their release really shattered us,” Trivikraman Nair, the father of one of the sailors from India’s southern Kerala state, told Indian Express.
“But, the Indian High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria was helpful. The High Commissioner, G Balasubramanian, used to visit them on the ship and ensured all possible support for their release,” he said.
