ECOWAS maritime commander demands search mission for missing fishing observer

The Acting Director of the ECOWAS Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre, Commander Yussif Benning has faulted the Fisheries Commission for failing to constitute an initial search party to find the missing Ghanaian fishing observer.

One Emmanuel Essien, a fishing observer assigned to the Meng Xin 15, a Chinese Vessel operating in Ghana, has been reported missing for about three weeks.

The Fisheries Commission has said the crew of Chinese fishing vessel were arrested, over the disappearance of a fishing observer and later granted bail.

In a Citi News interview, Commander Yussif Benning maintained that the observer cannot be declared missing when the Fisheries Commission has not instituted a search.

“For the observer to be declared officially missing in our jurisdiction, there has to be a rescue and search [exercise] at the area where he got missing. Based on the findings, then the state can now make an official declaration that he is indeed missing. But, the fisheries commission which received the information and controls the vessel are the ones to kick in this process. For me, the first thing which needs to be done parallel to what the police are doing at the shore is an official search before we can put the docks together and say that he got missing in this general area.”

 Meanwhile, the Executive Director for the Center of Maritime law and safety, Kamal Deen says stakeholders within the maritime space must intensify investigations to ensure that the missing fishing observer is found.

According to the retired naval Captain, there are some critical questions that need to be answered to unravel the circumstances that led to the disappearance.

“These are the key questions that we will have to interrogate and in the larger interest of the nation and ensure that we are better prepared. I think this issue must be investigated to its bottom because somebody cannot disappear like that – there must be information we are not in possession of or someone is not giving. It is key that, this is done because this is the life of a fishing observer who was working for the whole country”.

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