Nigerian FM pledged to help Russian sailors return home

Nigeria’s foreign minister pledged to help Russian sailors arrested near the West African country’s coast on arms smuggling charges last year to return home, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. The ministry’s statement, posted following a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Nigerian counterpart Viola Onwuliri on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, said Lavrov pushed for the soonest return of seven sailors to Russia. "The Nigerian minister, for her part, pledged that she would contribute to that in every possible way," Russian News Agency (RIA Novosti) quoted the statement as saying. A total of 15 Russian sailors were arrested near the Nigeria’s coast in October 2012 on arms smuggling charges. All of them belonged to the crew of the MV Myre Seadiver vessel owned by Moscow-based security firm Moran Security Group. In mid-June 2013, eight of the arrested Russian sailors were acquitted by a Nigerian court and returned to Russia. A Nigerian court postponed until October 8 the trial of the remaining seven sailors, who, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry report in July, were in the Russian Embassy's compound in Lagos awaiting the court ruling.