YENAGOA, Nigeria – A Nigerian court has charged 26 men, including eight Sri Lankan nationals, with conspiracy to commit a maritime offence and attempting to illegally deal in crude oil after authorities accused their super tanker of sailing in Nigerian waters without authority.

The captain is an Indian national while the crew members included one  from Poland, 16 from India, Sri-Lanka and one from Philippines, court papers showed.

At the request of Nigerian authorities, Equatorial Guinea detained the Heroic Idun, a vessel capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, on Aug. 17 for sailing without an identifying flag, fleeing from the Nigerian navy and sailing in Equatorial Guinean waters without prior authorization.

The 26 men, including the captain, appeared in a High Court in the Nigerian Rivers state capital Port Harcourt on Monday (14) and Tuesday (15) and the judge ordered them to be detained on their ship under the guard of the Nigerian navy.

The men, who all denied the charges, were accused of having “attempted to deal with crude oil within the Nigeria Exclusive Economic zone without lawful authority”.

Nigeria said the vessel had not loaded any oil before the navy approached it, but said the ship made a false claim of a piracy attack, entered a restricted area without authorization and attempted to load crude oil illegally.

Oil theft has taken more than 400,000 barrels per day from Nigeria’s oil output, hit state finances and knocked it from Africa’s top exporter to number two, the state oil firm says.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka has said it is working closely with the relevant parties for the early release of the Sri Lankan nationals and that the Sri Lankan High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya is in contact with the crew members in question.

.The vessel’s managers OSM Maritime said in a statement earlier the MT Heroic Idun was expected to load an oil consignment from Akpo terminal in Nigeria in early August, and were waiting for the necessary clearance papers when the Nigerian navy approached the vessel under cover of darkness, causing serious concerns of a piracy attack. It said following Best Management Practice, the vessel escaped from the area and out into international waters, and that later, at the request of Nigerian navy, the vessel was interdicted in international waters by a naval vessel from Equatorial Guinea.

OSM Maritime also alleged the sailors were escorted to Malabo – the capital of Equatorial Guinea – at gunpoint.

-Reuters/ENCL