{"id":46109,"date":"2021-07-03T21:29:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T20:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government"},"modified":"2021-07-03T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T20:46:18","slug":"nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria returns seized vessel to Switzerland government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The Federal Government of Nigeria on Saturday returned a Swiss vessel, MT San Padre Pio, to the Government of Switzerland, three years after it was seized by the Nigerian Navy.<\/p>\n<p>The navy arrested the vessel and its 16 Ukrainian nationals on January 23, 2018 for illegal entry and transport of gas oil into Nigeria\u2019s waters without a permit.<\/p>\n<p>An official in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Dr Francis Oni, handed over the vessel and cargo to the representatives of the Swiss government at a brief ceremony in Onne, Rivers State.<\/p>\n<p>Oni said after the seizure of the vessel, its crew were charged to the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt for trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMT San Padre Pio was caught transferring gas oil into another ship on Nigerian waters in the middle of the night without permission from relevant authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, the Swiss government, probably not understanding how the system of Nigeria works, instituted a court action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Swiss government sought the prescription of provisional measures at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThereafter, the court made a provisional ruling requesting Switzerland to issue in favour of Nigeria, a bond of 14 million US Dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe court also requested Switzerland to enter into an undertaking that is binding under international law, to produce the suspects wherever their presence was required by the court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Oni said that based on the ruling of the ITLOS, Nigeria was required to release the vessel, pending final determination of the tribunal.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the federal government later discharged and acquitted the sailors while some members of the crew stayed onboard to maintain the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>He said in spite of Nigeria\u2019s willingness to comply fully with the ruling of the court, Switzerland could not fulfil the condition of the tribunal hence further detention of the ship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSubsequently, the then Vice President and now President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelin, and Nigeria Vice President Osinbajo entered into high level talks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth vice presidents held talks for the two countries to amicably settle the matter through the diplomatic channel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe talks culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 20 for the unconditional release of MT San Padre Pio to the Swiss government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe MoU also stated that after its release, the vessel would depart Nigeria\u2019s maritime space, while the Swiss government would proceed to withdraw the suit from the tribunal,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria on Saturday returned a Swiss vessel, MT San Padre Pio, to the Government of Switzerland, three years after it was seized by the Nigerian Navy. The navy arrested the vessel and its 16 Ukrainian nationals on January 23, 2018 for illegal entry and transport of gas oil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15,28,26],"tags":[1570,2140,254,4710],"class_list":["post-46109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-nigeria","tag-switzerland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigeria returns seized vessel to Switzerland government - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Federal Government of Nigeria on Saturday returned a Swiss vessel, MT San Padre Pio, to the Government of Switzerlan ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigeria returns seized vessel to Switzerland government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Federal Government of Nigeria on Saturday returned a Swiss vessel, MT San Padre Pio, to the Government of Switzerlan ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-03T20:29:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-03T20:46:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/img-60e0cc6b90cd2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nigeria returns seized vessel to Switzerland government\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-03T20:29:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-03T20:46:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\"},\"wordCount\":414,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/img-60e0cc6b90cd2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Nigeria\",\"Switzerland\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/economy\/nigeria-returns-seized-vessel-to-switzerland-government\",\"name\":\"Nigeria returns seized vessel to Switzerland government - 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