4 July 2009
interview
Lagos — For the 10 Nigerians who returned home two weeks ago after 303 days in the custody of Somali pirates, the agony they went through is unlikely to go soon. In this interview, the ship captain, Graham Egbegi, recounts what they went through.
You said you had one-second engineer?
Yes, one-second engineer, he has just gone to Port Harcourt. He had high blood pressure for eight months. You understand, even at that point, I could not sleep because virtually everybody was under me. Now, my deputy, they called him the Chief Maid, was carrying this guy's urine because he could no longer walk.
What happened was that we had to place a bucket beside where he was sleeping and anytime he wanted to urinate he would urinate inside that bucket and then the guy would go and throw the urine away the next day. And when the guy complained that his head was about erupting, I had to put rag in water and started mopping him up. It was very terrible. At the time I could not sleep where I was supposed to sleep and that is why you see me like this.
If I fall sick, I could not complain because if I complained, how could I attend to the other people? So, I was dying with my own sickness and it was not easy for me. Somehow, you know, we were able to convince these people one day that 'look, you cannot allow all of us to die like that. Even if our company has not paid the ransom, exercise patience'.
So they started taking us out, it was an arrangement. I took the pains to go to their village one day. I said even if I am going to die, let me die. So, they carried me with their guns and speedboat to their village where we saw a small health centre that was built by the European Union (EU) for them. We had to beg the doctor, begged one or two persons. So they started bringing two, two persons from the vessel for medication. So, that particular guy who had high blood pressure, they gave him drip for two days after which they stopped.
The 10-man crew of MV Yenagoa kidnapped in August 2008 off the Somali Coast on a visit to Foreign Affairs Minister in Abuja.
And they took you back into the ship?
Yes, that was our home. We had nowhere to go. We were in the ship for 303 days. It was a very, very terrible experience. And until the day of our freedom when they told us to go, like I said before, certain things were shrouded in secrecy and I was not privy to certain information, and I will not want to say certain things that happened between the pirates and the outside world, my family, the government and the rest, I am not privy to certain information. But I was only "told you can go".
When you were first taken hostage, what was their first demand?
Money.
And you told them you didn't have money?
I had 5, 000 US dollars on me. The first thing they did was to collect that money. And (laughs) you know, I had some N7, 000 in my pocket too, they collected it. I told them "this Naira you cannot change it, so, leave this money", but they said no. Because anything Nigeria is popular outside and they felt that our money in terms of exchange rate was at par with the US dollars, they felt that they had hit millions.
So, they seized that one too. What I understood from them was that 33,000 Shillings equal one dollar. So they thought that Naira was big money, they were very happy having it. After that, they started taking other things, sometimes at gun point, sometimes when you were sleeping, sometimes when you were not around.
After taking what you had on you, they now said you should contact your employers?
No, no, I contacted my employer the day after our capture, that was the 4th of August 2008. On the 5th , they opened up the lines to the employers and the employers were like today, tomorrow, just like that. I contacted the Business Development Manager, one guy that is called Buchi. He said he was going to handle the negotiations at the initial stage. And he was the first person who agreed on $1 million with them.
So, later when the MD came back from Malaysia and said he did not have that kind of money, they said Africans generally are liars. The pirates didn't believe what the people were saying. But I did try to make them understand that this was one-man business and not a multi-national company.
"If the man is saying that he does not have $1 million, it is true. So, whatever the man can offer you, take it". So, they now gave an ultimatum that if the man did not pay at so, so time, they were going to execute everybody". So, when the payment was not made, we started begging them, at first, it was not easy. Everyday, we were kneeling down, begging them, just to spare our lives; I mean these guys were, I don't know how to describe them. And when that promise was not fulfilled, they decided to extend the deadline.
When the MD came and said," look, we don't have that kind money", how much did he say he will part with?
Well, according to him, he had $200,000 and the people said they were not going to take that. The people now told him that since Buchi had said that he could make arrangement to pay $1 million, "how come you are now singing a different song? So, if you are now saying that you don't have the $1 million to pay, then it means that we are going to make the money $2 million".
So, they compounded the problem again. It took a long time before they resumed negotiation until the MD and them finally settled for $600,000. It was almost after seven months or thereabouts. And during that time, the suffering was too much and we thought we were all going to die. The miracle is that nobody died, but we are not the same up till now.
When the MD agreed to pay $600,000, why did he not pay it?
He made a lot of promises, he told them that to carry $600,000 from Nigeria, he would charter a plane to fly the money straight to Jubudi and from there he would make arrangement to fly the money and drop the money for them, then they would free the boat or, as the time his plane took off, they should take a boat to a particular position and give him the position and, as soon as he got there, he would drop the money. And then, after a long period again, when the suffering became too much, they now said they only had $300,000. They now came down from $600,000 to $300, 000. But, before then, two men came to visit us from the city they called Bosaso. And those two men said they were sent by the company. And when I asked this admin. manager, Torrence, he said yes that our company sent them.
Captain Graham Egbegi (2nd right) introducing his crew members to the Foreign Minister, Ojo Maduekwe.
Where they Nigerians?
No, they were Somalis. So, that day, our MD asked me, the phone was on speaker. He said he wanted to speak to the entire crew members to know if everybody was alive. So, I called everybody, which was on the 5th of March, 2009. Everybody was on the bridge together with the pirates and those two people they sent in. When the people started discussing with him, he said what they could afford was $300,000.
But the people they sent told him that "you said you have $600,000â-', that they should come and see the ship to know if that is the ship itself, that they really wanted to hear my voice and that of the crew to know that those were their people. And they had heard everything, "how come he was now saying that it was $300,000â-'. So, the man now discussed with the other pirates and they said okay, "even if that is the case, we will take the $300,000â-'. So, they agreed that they were going to take the $300,000. And in the course of the discussion, I don't know what happened, this Torrence just flared up and told the pirates that he was tired of discussing with them. He repeated it not once, not twice.
And you were hearing his voice
He was on speaker, everybody was hearing. All of us were there. So everybody went down on his knees and we were begging the Somali pirates. It was then the pirates said, "you see, your employer does not even care about your lives". I think that was the turning point when God started his miracle.
Altogether, how many of you were on board?
We were ten.
And you had ladies among you?
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