…As Osinbajo holds virtual meeting with IMF, World Bank reps over Economic stimulus***
Three out of the eight crew members of a German-managed cargo ship kidnapped this week in the Gulf of Guinea were Russians.
The Russian Embassy in Benin Republic confirmed this on Tuesday, saying they were also following the abduction off the coast of the West African country of Benin and the unfolding consequential development with keen interest.
“The embassy continues to follow the developing situation with the Russian sailors.
“The other hostages’ nationalities have not been disclosed,“ the embassy said.
The Portuguese-flagged, 255-metre-long container ship, Tommi Ritscher, managed by German company Transeste Schiffahrt, was raided on Sunday in an anchorage at Cotonou, the largest city in Benin.
The consulting firm, MTI in Singapore highlighted that the 11 crew members who took shelter in the ship’s citadel during the incident are safe, while the pirates are believed to have fled with the hostages.
Also read: Tommi Ritscher: Pirates kidnap 8 crew off Portugal-flagged container ship
The priority now is to focus on the ongoing safety and welfare of the eight missing crew members.
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), has again emphasised that seas around West Africa remain the world’s most dangerous for piracy.
Consequently for now, the Gulf of Guinea, particularly the coasts of Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria and Togo, presently posited the highest risk in the world, accounting for 73 per cent of global abductions at sea and 92 per cent of hostage-takings. For this, some industry watchers have blamed poverty and joblessness and the lack of adequate Government attention on the piracy scourge.
In another development, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday in Abuja held an online meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank.
The meeting, anchored via videoconferencing from the Presidential Villa, deliberated on how the agencies could collaborate with Nigeria in the planned additional economic stimulus packages to address the fallout of COVID-19 pandemic.
President Muhammadu Buhari on March 30, set up the Economic Sustainability Committee(ESC) headed by the vice president to develop a clear economic sustainability plan until 2023.
The committee was tasked with identifying fiscal and monetary measures to enhance oil and non-oil revenues in order to fund the plan; develop a stimulus package and come up with measures to create more jobs while keeping existing ones.
Buhari had also approved an initial economic stimulus package of N500 billion.
The global economy is expected to go into recession in 2020 while the IMF has predicted that Nigeria will go into recession to a level of negative 3.4 per cent.
The ESC had expressed optimism that with the plans it had drawn, Nigeria would be able to return to positive growth by 2021.
