Saigba, accompanied by two of the four crew members who were on board the ship, arrived in Monrovia on May 13, according to a Defense Ministry press release.

Saigba claims to be one of two shareholders in the company called H. Matic's Resources Limited based in Bayelsa State in Nigeria.
According to him, the company is engaged in the supply of petroleum products,marine logistics, haulage, civil engineering and general contractual services.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the three men came on board Arik Air of their own volition and were not arrested, and that they have since been cooperating with Liberian security institutions to unravel circumstances surrounding the vessel.

Saigha told Liberian security personnel that he bought the Panamanian-registered ship in 2015.
He said before it was transferred to him, it was used to transport groundnut oil from Senegal to Europe.

According to Saigba, the vessel set sail on April 22 from Dakar, Senegal for Nigeria and developed technical fault at sea.
"It was later established through contact via the fishing vessel (which he bought to trace the vessel) that TAMAYA 1 was found sinking in an area 7 degrees 07 North and 13 degrees 08 degrees East of Freetown, Sierra Leone towards Conakry, Guinea and it subsequently drifted to Liberia," the release quoted Saigba as saying.

According to Omowho Bernard, chief engineer of the vessel who came along with Saigba, the ship started to leak from the engine room and that all efforts to correct the situation failed.

He said eventually, he and fellow crew members, including the captain, disembarked using TAMAYA 1 Lifeboat to board a fishing boat,
which came to their rescue.
He said the lifeboat was later abandoned at sea and it drifted to the coast of Edina in Grand Bassa County.

Investigation conducted by the Liberian Coast Guard (LCG) established that it was indeed one of the two lifeboats onboard the abandoned Panamanian-registered Nigerian oil tanker TAMAYA 1, the release said.
LINA PR/TSS/PTK