Ghanaians behind piracy bust?

Reports suggest that there may be a Ghanaian connection in a piracy saga in which a vessel was busted for attempting to siphon off about 3,500 Metric tons of fuel from another vessel - MT COTTON.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, provided details of the bust on Joy News.

He says the piracy took place on MT-COTTON, a vessel in Gabon on 14th July 2013. To get to the vessel, a Ghana-based company chartered another vessel, MT MUSTARD and set off on or around 20th July 2013 from Ghanaian waters to meet MT-COTTON to siphon off the fuel.

The Ghana-based company is reportedly located around the Airport Residential area and hired the MT-MUSTARD through another agent in Tema.

The Vessel was intercepted at Saltpond after returning from the illegal activity and its 17 crew were arrested by the Ghana Navy in collaboration with National Security. The two main suspects are the unnamed person who chartered MT-MUSTARD, and the agent of the vessel in Tema.

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) is trying to verify from the Registrar-Generals department whether the company is owned by Ghanaians or foreign nationals who used Ghana as a base.

Emmanuel Sowatey, a security analyst, acknowledged that piracy and other illegal maritime activities along the West African coast were real. He said, according to the African Union, the continent lost a staggering 300bn dollars to oil theft and illegal fishing activities.

He hailed the international collaboration between Ghana and Interpol that resulted in the arrest. He said intelligence collaboration among African countries was improving but was still very weak.

In offering a solution, he said the best intelligence was greater transparency and accountability in the oil sector, which he believes will even entice fishermen who are on the high seas to voluntarily report any suspicious activity.

He explained: "People like the fisher-folk will know that oil revenue is being used to support their industry, i.e premix fuel is subsidised, their nets will be subsidized...if they are at sea and they see any criminal activity they will be the first persons to report."

This is what he termed “soft security”.