Indians lodged in Nigerian jail being ‘harassed’
Friday, 03/01/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140103/punjab.htm#6
Hoshiarpur : Indians lodged in a Nigerian jail are on the verge of dying. They hardly get meal once a day and there is no medication in case anyone falls ill. The abject misery that befell on 10 Indians, including two Punjabis, have been laid threadbare in a letter by Capt Shailesh Kumar Singh, captain of the Indian crew, to the Indian Government. He has sent the letter to the family of Gagan Kumar of Hoshiarpur, one of the two Punjabi lodged in the Nigerian jail. The other youth is from Gurdaspur.
Capt Shailesh has stated in the letter that the Nigerian court had granted them bail thrice, but they were not released. The 10 Indians had been facing hardships and deserted by the company they were working for.
A Nigerian naval ship NNS Predator had intercepted MT Akshay off the oil-rich Sangana river sector and found cargo suspected to be stolen crude oil. All 23 people on board the ship (10 Indians, two Ghanaians and 11 Nigerians) were arrested and handed over to the country’s anti-corruption police — the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) — for investigation and prosecution for oil theft.
Capt Shailesh has refuted the charge of theft of crude oil. He has claimed that the Indians were being implicated in the case and the oil that was told to be crude oil was the fuel on which the ship ran.
He wrote that the ship, MT Akshay, belonged to Veesham Shipping and Krishna Shipping, and owned by Indians Ajay Bhatia and Chander Kumar Shroff.
They had left for Port Harcourt in Nigeria on November 23, 2012, on the direction of Bhatia and Chander. The letter reads, “We were arrested in Nigeria on November 25, 2012. We are not getting response from the company. Our salaries have not been paid since November 2012, as a result of which we are unable to get help and can’t send any help to our families. The ship owners are not responding.”
He further writes, “After being arrested by the Nigerian Navy, we were kept at a place for nearly 50 days without food and water. When we were all about to die, we were deboarded from the Nigerian Naval and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria. All our valuables, qualification certificates and valuables were left in the ship. After a week, we were lodged in jail and are suffering a lot since.”
Capt Shailesh has urged the Indian Government to intervene and get them released.
Victims of ill-treatment
Indians lodged in a Nigerian jail hardly get meal once a day and there is no medication in case anyone falls ill
The Nigerian court granted them bail thrice, but they were not released
Indians are facing hardship; they have been deserted by the company they were working for
