[Nigeria] Call with Argentina

[JJSmithJr]

(Continued from here: https://modernnations.com/threads/mn-we-want-it.7080/#post-27860)

The Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Navy, Admiral Ibok Ibas, would answer the encrypted call from Argentina on the emergency secured encrypted phone in his private office.

"Hello, sir, what can I do for you and the noble Argentine people today?"

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Sir, excuse me for calling you abruptly. Sadly we don't have time for any protocolar issues, we have been informed that an argentine merchant vessel, one of the currently operating argentine-nigeria trade routes, has apparently been intercepted and hijacked by a group of pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, about 1,000km south west of Lagos.

Thankfully they have not disengaged the AIS nor any other location device, giving us the opportunity to find out their exact location.

They demand payment of 200,000,000.00 USD and to be done in within the next 8 hours... now its a little bit less, around 7 hours. They have not clearly expressed what will happen if not, but we can imagine. Now, considering that any of our own means would take more than that to even get near the site of the incident, we wanted to request the assistance of the Nigerian Navy in solving this issue."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"Goodness, I am glad you called, piracy is an issue we haven't seen on the Eastern Part of Africa in some time. I will immediately inform the Naval Base at Lagos and have them prep a corvette with an RHIB to make an immediate response for a rescue mission.

What can you tell me about the ship? How many cargo containers? Crew? Do you have specifications of the bridge layout? All of this will be vital to the Special Forces that are deployed."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"We are currently trying to establish communications with the pirates. As of now we only receive 2 video recordirngs from them, sating their demans in the first and brutally beating the ships captian in the second... They have since turned off the AIS, but we suspect that the ship remains at the last recorded location, som 1,100km southwest of Lagos.

What we know is that the ship is the MV Esperanza, a DWT 38,000T Type Bulk Carrier constructed in the Philippines few years ago, that was covering trade route AR-NI03, transporting vehicles from Argentina to Nigeria.

At the moment of the hijacking it was manned by a crew of 22. But on the video we only identified 20 of them, and the pirates made no reference to them. Its probable the 2 remaining sailors are hiding somewhere in the ship.

Back to the demands, they require 200M in the next 4 hours before beginning to execute a hsotage every hour without us complying. They have not yet stated how they want the money delivered.

I'm forwarding you now the exact AIS coordinates of the ship, the video recordings and the ship manifest."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"How are they expecting the money to be delivered? A ruse may not be the worst tactic depending on what they desire, regardless, Nigeria doesn't negotiate with these bandits, the ship is your property, but we would like to plan up a boarding strike to capture or kill the pirates, and rescue the prisoners if possible. I have a Counter Insurgency Team getting ready in Lagos, They can be on location in 20 hours, with the advanced ship arriving in 15, but either way you must buy us time, they must realize their time frame is unreasonable, especially considering the logistics of actually getting the money. May I also suggest that it may be worthwhile to deliver the funds or dummy funds to track them."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"We have not yet heard back from these pesty criminals, and so far they haven't picked up our calls. We have no idea how they expect us to deliver the money... even if we would want to, we couldn't reach that point in time with the, as you said, ridiculous time frame.

In the meantime, I would suggest we work on the possibility that we have two sailors currently in hiding. If we somehow manage to contact them, we could use them to our advantage in obtaining information or potential access for an extranction/rescue team.

We will try to gain time, in the meantime perhaps you could approach the area of the incident while we figure out how to proceed.

Brazil has contacted us and offered assistance with the Frigate they have currently off your coast."

@HeadlessSeeker

 

[JJSmithJr]

"Our ships are on location and have spotted the vessel. What would you like us to do? There seems to be little movement on this front. I would advise you let my men aggressively board the ship and take it with force. They are ready and simply waiting my command.

I await your confirmation. This ordeal has been quite the nuisance. I say we end it."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Do you have the chance to try get in touch with the hidden argentine sailors? They might be of help, helping getting your men into the ship and getting them around. They could help you for exmaple cut the power lines if you plane to strike during the night."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"We are taking the ship tonight, we have made contact with the sailors and we will have them attempt to cut the power, but should this fail we have every confidence of our own success. This atrocity must be wrapped up. We have bigger matters to focus on.

As for France, is there anything that Nigeria can do, we offer our full support, and we are prepared to assist in anyway possible."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Go ahead, we cannot tolerate these pirates anymore. We trust your people are the right one to carry out this rescue mission.

As for France, we thank you for your offer of support. For the moment we are planning to keep the conflict on a bilateral level. However... if you happen to hear o see any strange movements between your maritime trade routes, please, let us know. We don't know if any of the french vessels escaped our blockade in Europe."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"We have secured the ship and the hostages, no casualties on our side, the ship and the hostages along with the FRS Viola, a Nigerian Frigate are enroute to Buenos Aires. A job well done.

While I have you on the line though, I believe there are many other bilateral topics relating to security that we should discuss. Nigeria is in the dire need of radar for detecting incoming threats from air and sea. We would be curious about the cost of acquiring several Argentine 3D Radar systems as well as a couple of units of Long Range Maritime Radar."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Congratulations, and a very big thank you. Your forces have shown a high level Of professionalism. Argentina will not forget this.

And I think its only logical in this case that we help you cover your operational needs. We currently have multiple chinese made JY-14 medium to long range air defense radars, and we would be more than willing to facilitate you few Petrel LRMR to survey your part of the atlantic ocean."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"Thank you sir, the vessels and the hostages will arrive in Buenos Aires this evening. We are happy to have helped. We are proud of the outcome.

We would need at least four of these radars preferably five. We would want three of these Petrels. We are happy you can provide such equipment."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Have no doubt that we will begin preparing everything to have those 7 radars shipped to Nigeria as soon as possible. They should be enough to cover your needs, but should you require anything else, do not hesitate in telling us.

On other matters, regarding the current 15bn loan Nigeria took from the argentine central bank, given our close relation and the recovery of some assets we thought lost, we are able now to reduce the interest rate to 0%."

@JJSmithJr

 

[JJSmithJr]

"We are very happy to have allies like Nigeria, very happy indeed, we are sorry that we could not provide more support in this recent French crisis, our own economic problems continue to loom over our state. We are planning a massive investment in local infrastructure, power, and education, as well as in our uranium mining to unlock our own domestic power capacity. With Nigerian Uranium, Argentina, could become completely energy independent and green. Indeed all of CIS could achieve such a feat.

We are honored to have this interest rate reduced, and we continue to look forward to working with your government. We believe it is time to reintroduce the financial regulations resolution at the General Assembly. It is time that we take an active role in strengthening international law."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"The french war is history now. We are aware that nigeria offered asistance, and we appreciate it, don't worry.

My government supports your nations efforts to develop the national infrastructure and energy grid, having been through a similar process in the near past. Let us know if we can help somehow. Argentine possess Uranium soruces as well, and might contribute some know-how.

I can also let you know that we have shipped to you 2 Petrel LRMR as well as 4 JY-14 aerial radars. We will be shipping a 3rd LRMR soon. In Argentina we complement said maritime OTH with a shorter range Podsolnukh-E over-the-horizon surface-wave radar. Perhaps you should do the same. They are russian made."

 

[JJSmithJr]

"Excellent this is all excellent news, we are very pleased to have received this equipment, it will go far in strengthening our defense, especially with the current attack on Russia.

We would be happy to work with your industry when it comes to our own untapped uranium reserves. We would also like to begin the process of integrating the visa system for travel for work and education as well as tourism between all CIS nations. This would allow Nigerians access to the Argentine University system, a true asset to our people."

@Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"If Nigeria would propose a preferential visa system for the CIS Community, to integrate labor markets and boot international investment between Partner Countries, I'm sure my country would support it.

A Scholarship system would also be a good option. We could create a CIS financed fund to aloow students from our nations to study semesters abroad on the best universities and institutes the CIS nations have to offer.

As for the uranium reserves, just let us know and we will be there. We are currently in talks with Sudan, regarding a 400M investment into their main port, to boost that nations commercial capacity."

@JJSmithJr