One person is feared dead and three persons missing after a Chinese fishing vessel was hijacked by pirates in Togolese waters.
The pirates reportedly stabbed one of the men on the vessel which led to his death.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8qsDf5gqpYqrFRLfzmhVexxhSTpH5sF9″]The vessel, Lu Rong Yuan Yu 917 had 22 Ghanaians and six Chinese crew on board.
According to the Commanding Officer of the Ghana Navy Ships, Lt. Commander Victor Fianko, the Ghana Navy is collaborating with their Togolese counterparts to search for the three missing crew members.
In an interview with Citi News, Lt. Commander Fianko narrated that on Tuesday, his outfit received information that the hijacked vessel had been abandoned and it was heading towards Ghanaian waters.
The Navy then sent a dispatch to the eastern boarder of Ghana where the vessel was intercepted.
Upon a thorough search on the vessel, the Ghana Navy retrieved 10 homemade bombs, 10 explosives, two rifles, two navigational charts covering the cost of Benin to Tema, three explosive fuses, torchlight, an empty cartridge, one lighter, a handbag which the explosives were contained in.
“The Command Operation officer mentioned specifically that one of them is dead and the body is at Togo pending autopsy and three are also feared missing,” he said.
This is the second time in three weeks that the Ghana Navy has intercepted a hijacked ship.
On January 18, some eight Nigerians pirates were arrested by the Ghana Navy for hijacking an oil vessel in Nigerian waters.
The vessel which was carrying about 1,500 tonnes of crude oil was later navigated into Ghanaian waters by the pirates but an alert from the vessel owner led to their arrest.
The suspects have been remanded in Police custody.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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