Family tackles maritime firm over captain’s death

The family of Captain Oluwaseun Adekanla is deep in sorrow following his death in what it views as strange circumstances while in the service of a maritime company, Sea Doves Nigeria Limited, in Rivers State.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Oluwaseun and seven of his colleagues, made up of a chief engineer, Pius Ehrinmu; a chief mate, Ishola Adeniyi; another engineer, Prosper Dickson; an electrician, Ope Aduwo; a chief cook, Bassey Nsima; an able-seaman, Reuben Odoudou; and one Obinna Udekwe-Bosun, were on board the MT Blessed vessel with IMO number 7118894, when Oluwaseun reportedly developed a headache.

However, the captain’s health deteriorated and he was consequently disembarked from the vessel with the call sign 5NQD; some of his colleagues took him to the Gilber Multi Specialist Diagnostics Hospital in Port Harcourt, where a doctor, Henry Ndubuka, battled to save his life.

The 36-year-old, however, died a few hours after he was placed on admission in the hospital and his remains were deposited in a military hospital in Port Harcourt.

According to Oluwaseun’s elder brother, Ayodele, efforts to unravel the circumstances surrounding his death through an autopsy have proved abortive.

“The company he worked for appears faceless and has been operating with a fake address, all of which made the family to suspect that some facts that can throw more light on the circumstances surrounding Oluwaseun’s death are hidden,” Ayodele stated.

The Osun State indigene petitioned the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to intervene in a bid to get justice for Oluwaseun.

He said, “The family has not been officially briefed about my brother’s death. It was a friend, Captain Banji Ajadi, who informed me around 4pm of the same day that Oluwaseun took ill and had been placed on admission and he could not talk or open his eyes. I was in Abuja, so I directed him to my elder brother, but around 11pm, I received another call from one Captain Tolu Adeniji, who told me that my brother was dead. He even sent a video to me for confirmation when I kept probing.

“When I met with Arowosaiye, he told me that Oluwaseun went to sleep in his cabin but suddenly started complaining of a severe headache around 1 am on November 27, 2019, but his girlfriend, Precious, said they chatted till around midnight and he never complained of any illness.

“Afterwards, he said Oluwaseun was rushed to hospital around 5 am, where he died. I blame all the crew on board, most especially the cook, the engineer, the general manager and the owner of the ship, Olu Brown, for his death and I want justice for my brother.

“Till date, we have not seen my brother’s corpse and I have petitioned NIMASA to intervene. A death certificate provided by the hospital stated that he died of hypertension around 9:43pm. I told Arowosaiye that there was a need to conduct an autopsy before going ahead with his burial, but few weeks after our meeting, the company paid N300,000 from the N1.5m salary it owed him and I got a text from Arowosaiye stating that the company would not be responsible for any other thing again.”

When the representatives of the NIMASA visited the company’s stated address on No. 8A Elekahia Road, around the Brownstone Plaza in Port Harcourt, Ayodele said, “NIMASA found out that the firm had left the place a long time ago and that it didn’t have any registered office anywhere in Nigeria.”

He also faulted Ndubuka for not transferring Oluwaseun to a government hospital where he could be adequately treated.

The petition, which was addressed to the Director, Maritime Labour and Services, NIMASA, on January 28, 2020, by the family’s lawyer, Oladotun Hassan, read in part, “We are fully conversant with the international heinous conspiracy, inhuman treatment and concealment of facts leading to the murder and eventual death of the deceased in active service on November 27, 2019. He resumed on board the vessel on May 9, 2019, and his lifeless body was deposited in the Military Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

“We demand diligent investigation and call for the full NIMASA statutory laws to be invoked in this matter accordingly.”

When contacted, Precious said the medical practitioner, who attended to Oluwaseun, suspected that he was poisoned, adding that the captain died while the doctor was attempting to pass a pipe through his nostril so that he could be fed through it.

While speaking to PUNCH Metro, Ndubuka said, “His (Oluwaseun’s) co-workers brought him in a semi-conscious state and he wasn’t talking. He had elevated blood pressure and his oxygen concentration level was quite low. Nobody could give a good account of what happened to him before his presentation, but we were told he used to smoke and drink.

“We placed him on oxygen and administered other medical treatment to make his blood pressure come down and we monitored him. What led to his death will be determined by an autopsy, but I have told you what we found upon clinical examination.”

In his reaction, Arowosaiye said the documents to recover Oluwaseun’s corpse from the mortuary had been handed over to the family, adding that the company would pay the family the balance of his salary soon.

He stated, “I have met with the family on five different occasions. His people cannot wait for his salary before he is buried. The man, who worked knew why he was not paid. We owe him N1.5m and have paid N300,000 out of that for the burial. When he died, the company did not have money; we had to sell something to pay the mortuary bills.

“The family is free to conduct an autopsy because the documents are with them. I will not fund the autopsy. I have sent the message you sent to me to the owner of the company. The company does not have access to the corpse, because document at the mortuary was not written in the company’s name.”

Brown had yet to respond to a text message sent to his mobile telephone number regarding the family’s allegation as of the time this report was filed.

When contacted on Saturday, the Head, Public Relations, NIMASA, Isiche Ozamgbi, asked our correspondent to send a copy of the petition to his WhatsApp number.

He later said the petition was unclear and urged our correspondent to send it to an email address he provided.

When a clearer version of the petition was sent to his email address, our correspondent asked to know what NIMASA had done since it received the petition from the bereaved family’s counsel.

Ozamgbi, while acknowledging the petition through a WhatsApp message, simply wrote, “Ok. Will check with (the) Labour Department on Monday and will hopefully revert the latest Tuesday as said.”

A reminder was sent to him around 1:03pm on Monday and around 1:07pm on Tuesday, but when our correspondent got no response, a call was put through to him and he said, “You did not send me a question; I am almost 30 years in journalism; so, if you ask me a question verbally or I mean, message to message, will I be carrying it in my head like an exam? You don’t explain what you want to me, that is poor journalism in the modern era.

“What you sent to my email is unclear. Your only question is that you want to know what NIMASA has done after receiving the petition. So, we should write you a thesis? I wanted specifics; this is too elaborate, but no problem, I will reply you.”

Ozamgbi had yet to do so as of the time of going to press.