Nigerians Rescue Passengers of Sinking Sao Tome Ship

In what may be a good omen, the Internet-based Nigerian daily Business Day reported today that the Nigerian rescue of a sinking vessel from Sao Tome and Principe was enabled by the fact that Nigeria signed an international accord on maritime rescues.

The Sao Tome and Principe delegation (which has yet to sign the Joint Development Authority awards document in Abuja) was apparently not on board.

NMA, others rescue 68 passengers aboard distressed ship
by Ray Ugochukwu
2005-05-25 09:13:19

RIVERS STATE -- A Sao Tome and Principe vessel carrying 68 passengers on board was Monday rescued from sinking by a combined team of officials of the National Maritime Authority (NMA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Marine Industrial Services Consultative Organisation (MISCO).

The vessel, MV Praque Yara, was said to have developed an engine problem on Saturday resulting in her drifting for 48 hours, 100 nautical miles off Nigerian shores, before she could be sighted by another vessel, LNG Bayelsa, at about 7.33pm on the fateful day.

Sources at the NMA disclosed that on receiving the distress call, officers from the Search and Rescue Department of the apex maritime regulatory body jumped into a Caverton helicopter and went to sea and located the ship as she was drifting with its 68 passengers, including women and children, on board.

It was gathered that a rescue boat was immediately arranged, which towed the ocean liner to the Brass Terminal in Rivers State.

BUSINESS DAY gathered that the passengers had run short of food and water before succour came their way.

Though there was no casualty, sources revealed that 12 passengers were found to have fallen sick, with six of them developing stomach pains.

Confirming the development, the NMA Director of Marine Services, A. S. Olopoenia, said since Nigeria was a signatory to the 1979 Search and Rescue Convention of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), she was obliged to respond to any distress call from the high seas.

"We must do everything to offer assistance to calls from the high seas and within our territorial waters", the Ship Master said.

On the fate of the rescued vessel, he said that his men would not release her until the surveyors had declared it fit and safe to sail.

Olopoenia added that appropriate officers of the NMA had been dispatched to Brass through Port Harcourt, to ascertain the level of assistance the authority would further render to the ill-fated vessel.

The NPA recently commissioned its helicopter services aimed at monitoring happenings in the country's territorial waters and beyond in line with the new IMO security measures better known as the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.

The helicopter services is rendered by an indigenous firm, Caverton Helicopters, which service was deployed in the rescue of the drifting ship.