Odia Sailor Among Five Indians Rescued From Nigeria Pirates

Bhubaneswar: Five Indian seafarers including an Odia kidnapped off the Bonny Island in Nigeria on April 19 were released on Saturday.

This was informed by the External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Twitter.

The five seafarers, including Sudeep Choudhury from Odisha, were kidnapped from MT Apecus around 7pm on April 19. The incident was reported by the Director-General, Shipping, to the Ministry of External Affairs the next day.

Following the incident, the Centre had formed an Inter-Ministerial Group of Officers (IMGO). Later, the Indian High Commission had informed about the incident to the Nigerian authorities and urged them to secure the release of the kidnapped seafarers. Acting on the information, the Nigerian authorities facilitated their release.

The five kidnapped seafarers were brought to Port Harcourt under Nigerian police escort from where the Indian High Commission will safely repatriate them to India. The incident was reported to the MEA by the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who came to know about the incident from Sudip’s father.