By Evelyn Usman

MT MAXIMUS, a Saudi Arabian-owned ship hijacked eleven days ago off the coast of Cote D’Ivoire has been rescued by the Nigerian Navy.

During the rescue operation, a suspected pirate said to have confronted naval personnel in a gun duel was shot dead while six others were apprehended.

Identities of the  suspects some of who were Ghanaian and Nigerians are: Mike Ogborama, Ayo Joshua, Marcus Adesoji, Adeyemi Paul, Oluwafemi Samuel and Collins Friday.

The ship said to have been chattered by a South Korean company had successfully lifted 4,700 metric tones of AGO and was on its way when it was hijacked by nine heavily armed pirates off Cote d’ivoire waters.

The crew members were thereafter held hostage while the name on the ship was deleted and replaced with MT ELVIS-5, apparently to avoid arrest. They were also said to have disconnected the radar which disseminates information bothering on a ship location to other ships.

However, an American ship which got wind of the hijack reportedly gave the pirates a hot chase until it sailed into the South West waters, with Naval ships from Togo and Nigeria, joined in  the chase.

The Nigerian Navy ships Centenary, Okpabana and Sagbama were reportedly used to chase the hijacked ship . The chase by the NN reportedly began last Thursday until it forced the pirates to stop off Sao Tome coast. The tracker on the hijacked ship reportedly aided the  NN ability to locate the ship.

 It was further gathered that the rescue operation took the NN eight hours on Saturday. The delay  as learnt was caused by the  pirates resistance to surrender by getting out of the hijacked ship.

It was gathered that during the eight hours chase, one of the pirates reportedly came out of the ship and opened fire on Naval personnel, to be gunned down.

His corpse was evacuated from the hijacked ship at about 4pm yesterday.

Meanwhile,Vanguard reliably gathered that two crew members : an Indian and a Pakistani, were abducted by the pirates . They were said to have been  taken out of the hijacked ship in a medium boat to an unknown destination.

The NN Chief of Training and Operation,Rear Admiral Henry Babalola said to have coordinated the operation,  told journalists that the personnel were careful of not shooting , owing to the ship’s combustible content.

He said ” we waited that long because there was need for caution owing to the combustive content. Immediately they were stopped , we were mindful of firing because it could set the vessel on fire”

He added that after the suspected pirate was shot, personnel went on board the hijacked ship,where other pirates who hid inside  the engine room