Bhubaneswar: Five Indians including an Odia marine engineer Sudeep Chaudhary, who were kidnapped by pirates in Nigeria in the month of April, have been rescued and will be repatriated soon.
The four other seafarers are Sudeep Chaudhary, Ankit Hooda, Chirag Yadav, Avinash Reddy & Moogu Ravi. The five had been abducted from vessel ‘MT Apecus’ in outer anchorage of Bonny Island, Nigeria on April 19. They were successfully released and reached custody of authorities on 27 June.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted, “Had taken up the issue with #MEA after receiving a distress appeal from Shri Pradeepta Kumar Chowdhary, a resident of Odisha whose son Sudeep, a Sailor 3rd Officer on the vessel ‘MT Apecus’ was kept hostage along with four other sailors from Haryana, Maharashtra & Andhra.”
“Thank EAM @DrSJaishankar ji, MoS Shipping Sh. @mansukhmandviya, @india_nigeria and all stakeholders for their efforts in securing the release of 5 Indian seafarers including that of Sh. Sudeep Chowdhary from Odisha,” he added.
They rescued seafarers will be brought to Port Harcourt under Nigerian police escort and the Indian High Commission will safely repatriate them to India.