By TOLA ADENUBI, Lagos

Russian marines helped Nigeria foil an attack on a vessel in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday, a statement and video shared on social media by the Russian Ministry of Defence revealed on Wednesday.

According to the statement, “The Russian Navy responded to distress calls from the MSC Lucia and Nigerian Navy.

“They rushed to the scene from the Vice-Admiral Kulakov currently operating in the Gulf of Guinea on a three-week deployment.

“A number of pirates had boarded the container ship 86 nautical miles Southwest of offshore Agbami Oil Terminal.”

Built in 1985, Panama-flagged Lucia measuring 189 meters in length and 1,951 TEU, called at San Pedro port in Cote D’Ivoire last week, then moved to Lome on October 22.

The vessel departed the Togolese capital on the 24th and headed Southeast across the Gulf of Guinea.

According to AIS data provided by Pole Star, on the morning of the 25th, about 150 nautical miles to the Northwest of Sao Tome, MSC Lucia slowed from 14 knots and stopped.

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a system used by ships and vessels for identification at sea.

“The crew of Lucia hid in the engine room after reporting that gunmen in a speedboat were on board.

“Kulakov, an Udaloy-class destroyer, dispatched a Kamov Ka-27PS helicopter carrying sea soldiers,” the Russian Ministry of Defence said.

The statement said the pirates “got into a fast boat and headed towards the coast at full speed” at the sight of the warfare chopper.

The ministry released images of the ship, the fleeing pirates and their boat as Lucia continued its journey under protection.

Russia is on the list of top 10 countries with the world’s largest navies by active naval assets and by tonnage.

Nigeria and West African nations have been advised to increase surveillance of their territories.

In its latest report, the ICC International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) acknowledged that the number of attacks against ships globally has fallen to the lowest in decades.

Nigeria reported four incidents in the first nine months of 2021, in comparison to 17 in 2020 and 41 in 2018. (Nigerian Tribune)

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