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First entry: Saturday, November 28, 2020, 10:06 pm
Pirate aboard a Greek ship, with two sailors and the captain as hostages, took place at the beginning of last week, in the Nigerian maritime zone, as announced by the Panhellenic Association of the Merchant Marine (PEPEN), which also denounces as “unprecedented and unprecedented”. management of the problem by the shipping company and the competent ministries.
Specifically, a PEPEN announcement states the following:
The piracy took place at the beginning of last week, in the Nigerian maritime zone, on the Togolese-flagged ship “Stelios K” (supply – tanker), of a Greek shipping company (Koukianakis) based in Piraeus, He was heading to the area and there were 5 Greek sailors on board, including 3 members of PENEN.
In the result of the attack on the ship that took place at sea, the Captain and the two Sailors (all Greeks) were taken hostage.
Then the protagonists of the pirate attack left, taking 3 Greeks with them while the other two, a sailor and an engineer, remained on the ship, which then moved in the direction of the port of Lagos.
The government and the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Navigation, which have been involved in the case all these days, keep secret the attack and kidnapping of Greek sailors, an unheard of fact since the usual practice of international maritime transport was and is the publication of such cases.
The worst thing for the competent ministries and political leaderships, as well as for the shipping company, is that until yesterday they hid this fact from the families of the kidnapped sailors and the anxious question why they cannot communicate with their relatives on board. The answer was that one day the satellite phone broke down, the next the crew members got sick and the next there are several bureaucratic problems that are expected to be corrected … and that is why they did not pick up their mobile phones !!!
Meanwhile, despite the fact that several days have passed since the attack on the ship and the violent kidnapping of the crew, the competent services remain silent and the anxiety of the Marines’ families has reached its peak.
We demand from now on that the government responsibly inform the families of the Marinos first, to stop the bad theater of silence of the event and to give public explanations for the unauthorized tactics that handle the problem.
The need to keep the secret has no foundation or substance, as so far all cases of piracy on Greek and Greek-owned ships are being made public and the same is true for the respective ships of other countries.
The armed group that kidnapped the Greek sailors has no concern if their action becomes public in our country and in society. What he expects is the exchange of the hostages on the basis of an economic agreement (ransom) for their release.
PENEN has already taken firm steps towards the relevant services of the YEN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as our Consulate in Nigeria.
On the occasion of this new case, the government and its Shipping Minister G. Plakiotakis will do well, instead of spending the night and turning their backs on the shipping system to keep the marine fuels dirty, to take the initiative both internationally and internationally. . with the governments of these countries where the attacks are taking place, so that the problem can be addressed in the most effective way possible and in this way protects the lives of Greek seafarers and foreigners manned in Greek and international navigation. “
