The dramatic rescue of a Navios Maritime Acquisition product tanker off the UK coast has added to the security concerns of ships trading to the Gulf of Guinea.
The 75,000-dwt Nave Andromeda (built 2011) was rescued by the UK's elite special boat squadron after it sent out a Mayday when seven stowaways, which had boarded at Lagos, became hostile.
Before that, the vessel had reportedly been denied access to Spanish and French ports.
The incident arose amid increasing concerns about the security threat in the Gulf of Guinea caused mainly by piracy.
In response to the recent attacks, an extended risk zone is to be introduced in the Gulf of Guinea by employers' group the International Bargaining Forum from 1 November.
A key question that security experts were asking after the Nave Andromeda incident was how the stowaways managed to avoid detection before the ship left Lagos.
Hidden danger
Ship security sweeps, which are standard for vessels trading to the region, would usually have found the stowaways, especially as there were an unusually larger number on one ship.
There has been some suggestion that the men may have boarded from the rudder trunk.
However, there is usually no access from the rudder trunk to the vessel.
Dirk Siebels, senior advisor at security consultancy Risk Intelligence, believes the problem of stowaways in Nigeria is "pretty low level".
He said the Nave Andromeda was not alongside in Lagos but at the anchorage, "so anybody with a canoe could have climbed on board".
"It's not uncommon, unfortunately, and it's mostly opportunistic, but that’s not to say that there are no criminals involved providing some basic information," Siebels said.
The analyst said the practice in Nigeria is by no means organised and he rates it as no different to other countries in terms of numbers of stowaways.
He told TradeWinds the incident highlights once again the problem with disembarking migrants and stowaways in European ports.
Desperate measures
However, one security expert suggested that a spate of protests and reported killings in Lagos could now encourage people to take increasingly desperate measures to escape.
"That level of desperation leads to a dangerous situation on the part of those fleeing," the source said.
The Nave Andromeda's master alerted the authorities to the presence of the stowaways and said he was concerned for the safety of the crew due to the intruders' "increasingly hostile behaviour".
Navios reported that all the crew emerged from the incident unscathed. "Happily no crew members were injured and all are safe and well," the New York-listed shipowner said.
The Greek company also paid tribute to the ship's captain for his "exemplary response and calmness and to all the crew for their fortitude in a difficult situation".
The stowaways have been detained in the UK.
In January, four Nigerian stowaways were jailed for a similar incident on the 5,720-lane metre con-ro Grande Tema (built 2014) in December 2018.
The men were accused of attacking the crew as the vessel transited the Thames Estuary.
