The family of Emmanuel Essien, the Ghanaian who, in 2019, went missing on a Chinese fishing vessel in Ghanaian waters wants to know the outcome of the investigations.
It follows revelations by the Ghana Maritime Authority to the effect that, the probe carried out by the Marine Police into the matter remains inconclusive.
The family laments the delay in the investigations only gives room to heightened suspicions that Emmanuel Essien may have been killed and not gone missing as they are being made to believe.
Dan Essien, brother of the victim, who spoke on Eyewitness News on Wednesday said, the slow nature of the probe after the mysterious incident occurred is incomprehensible. He wants authorities responsible for the investigations to be up and doing to bring justice to the distraught family.
“It is true that for about two years now, nothing has been done. We have not seen anything, all the authorities do is to come and visit us and tell us that they are investigating. The government and vessel owners have done nothing. They have to find our brother for us. They said he is missing, but we don’t understand how our brother was the only one who got missing in the vessel. We believe he is dead because they killed him”, he said.
Emmanuel Essien embarked on a scheduled observer mission with the said vessel but has since not been seen.
He was attached to the Chinese vessel Meng Xin on July 5, 2019, on observer duties, but reportedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
His colleagues say the vessel returned from its deep-sea operations without Emmanuel.
It is standard practice to assign observers to foreign and local fishing vessels that fish in Ghanaian waters.
The observers also accused authorities of doing very little to find their missing colleague, adding that several of such complaints have not yielded any result.
The family of the missing fishing observer has, time without number, been calling on the government to help them find their relative.
Shockingly, two years after the disappearance, officials say no one has been held accountable yet.
The Ghana Maritime Police commenced investigations into the matter, but at a media engagement on Wednesday, officials from the Ghana Maritime Authority said the investigations have been inconclusive because none of the Chinese officials on board the vessel when the incident occurred has been apprehended.
“The investigation has not been concluded, but we have undertaken some investigation which has been validated but has not been able to establish the whereabouts of Mr. Essien. Currently, we do not have the full report of the Marine Police. The investigations are still ongoing so for now, he is still missing,” the Director-General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Thomas Alonsi, stated when he addressed the media on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.