24th February, 2012
Genesis Worldwide Shipping, the Nigerian shipping company linked with a ship, ‘MT Ben K’ which is currently under arrest by Namibian authorities, has described the publication and newspaper reports identifying the company as owners of the vessel as malicious and deliberate falsehood.
The Nigerian carrier was reported to have had one of her vessels, MT Ben K, arrested in Namibia for alleged port and flag state offences. The report, which was published by Shipping Position, a maritime industry weekly, further identified former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho, as the owner of the arrested vessel.
A statement by the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Maxwell Ihenacho, described the report as false and embarrassing as the vessel, MT Ben K, no longer belongs to Genesis Worldwide Shipping. He explained that the company once owned a product tanker called Ben K but that the vessel had been sold since July 2011 to Panamanian buyers with the full knowledge of the Nigerian flag administration. The statement condemned the attempt to link the company and its chairman, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho, to the ship and her current travails in Namibia.
“The presentation of the offensive radio report and newspaper publication went out of its way to create a tenuous but really non-existing ownership linkage between the apparently substandard ship and our company, Genesis Worldwide Shipping and by specific assertion, our chairman and CEO, Capt. E. Ihenacho,” he stated.
“We take the opportunity, for the sake of reporting accuracy and completeness of the records, to repudiate Mr. Onileimo’s radio and newspaper reports in its entirety and to state that Genesis Worldwide Shipping is not the current owner or operator of the said MT Ben K, and neither the company nor our chairman has anything whatsoever to do with the vessel or its current operational activities, particularly its voyage to Southern Africa or to anywhere at all,” he further stated.
Reacting to the report, Group Chairman and CEO, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho, explained that MT Ben K, which was formerly one of the ships in the fleet of Genesis Worldwide Shipping was sold to new owners, Messrs Lavorni Shipping Limited Corp of Panama City, Panama, in July 2011. “Prior to the sale,” he said, “ we duly informed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and instructed it to strike out the name of Ben K from the Nigerian Ship Registry.