Officers have been granted more time by Southampton Magistrates Court to question 7 men as part of the ongoing investigation into the maritime security incident on board the Nave Andromeda off the coast of the Isle of Wight on Sunday.
The group of men, who are all Nigerian nationals, were arrested on suspicion of seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force under Sec 9(1) and (3) of Aviation and Maritime and Security Act 1990, and will remain in custody until the evening of Wednesday 28th October.
Police have 24 hours to question someone in custody. After the first 24 hours, officers can then apply for 12 more hours with authorisation from a senior officer. After that, all applications must be applied via the courts and authorised by a judge. A maximum of 96 hours can be granted.
Island Echo was the first media agency to capture photos of the Nave Andromeda off the coast of the Isle of Wight as a major security incident unfolded on Sunday morning.
7 stowaways started to become aggressive to the 22 crew members of the Liberian-flagged oil tanker, leading to the Captain pleading for urgent assistance.
At just before 19:30 on Sunday evening, Special Boat Service commandos stormed the tanker under the cover of darkness and detained the 7 Nigerians, rescuing the crew of the Nave Andromeda in the process.
Hampshire Constabulary have confirmed all 22 crew members are safe and well, none were physically injured or required medical attention.
The tanker is now alongside in the port of Southampton. Investigators are speaking to the crew members to establish the exact circumstances of what happened.
For Christ’s sake they all boarded illegally in Lagos Nigeria. Tell the Nigerian government to deal with them on return. Fly them back ASAP and wave good riddance with them. Longer they’ve detained here the more chance they’ll end up staying here.
Is that to discuss what hotel they would like to live in. We all know where this is going.
Just send them back to where they come from
Shouldn’t someone tell that Police person that he can come down now.
Soon as they entered British waters should have been charged with breaking the rule of six.
Yes exactly! Who knows where they have been and what they carry! Nobody follows the covid rules in my townbut they should should be fined for multiple reasons!
For frigs sake. We all know they will end up staying here. We have all sorts from everywhere around us now. We don’t know what sort of men they are. When will this government change the rules on illegal immigrants. I thought we’ve left the EU!!!!!!
Why weren’t they shot dead. The SAS don’t pussy foot around.
Your right, but this apparently was the snowflakes in the SBS
Didn’t all you people who voted brexit do so because they promised to close the boarder. Guess what they lied.
I presume you mean ‘border’?
You know how to repel boarders – stop changing the bed linen!
So if the police are not allowed more time I suppose they say ‘you can go now’ !!!!!!
Who cares just get rid
So having been refused permission to dock in TWO European ports the ship comes here and the story has changed to now ‘alleged’ terrorist event. Looks like someone knew the ‘stowaways were there and ‘forgot’ to mention it to our authorities, choosing instead to perhaps embellish the situation to ensure they got the Nigerians off the ship and get the ship docked because the good old UK is a nice easy touch, and very easily manipulated. I just wonder why our European cousins ‘forgot’ to tell us what was going on. This story is NOT even close to being over, their are questions to be answered.