The state has dropped charges against two Ghanaians, George Opata Okrah and Joel Yaw Attah suspected to have aided eight Nigerian pirate who seized a Nigerian flagged commercial oil tanker.
[contextly_sidebar id=”BwTFUEolVC413x6bI7wIOnDxiZc5p0Ly”]Eight Nigerian suspected pirates were arrested in January by the Eastern Naval Command in Tema for hijacking an oil vessel in Nigeria.
Ghanaian Security Services say the pirates managed to transfer the ship’s cargo into another vessel before their arrest.
The vessel, MV Mariam, was carrying about 1,500 tonnes of crude oil at the time it was hijacked.
The pirates reportedly turned the vessel around and entered the territorial waters of Ghana but a tracking device on the vessel enabled the owner to track it down.
Two Ghanaians were charged along with the eight for aiding and abetting.
They were charged with piracy and conspiracy to commit crime but the state on Tuesday’s sitting ruled that investigations reveal the two had no involvement in the crime.
They were therefore subsequently been discharged and acquitted by an Accra Magistrate court.
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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana