‘The government’s decision to leave the MV Barima at the bottom of the Atlantic is premature and wicked’
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed yesterday offered to finance and undertake the salvaging of the MV Barima as he condemned as premature and “wicked” any decision to leave the wreck on the seabed while families continue to await the recovery of their relatives.
His statement followed comments by Prime Minister Mark Phillips that the vessel was likely to remain where it is because of the difficulties encountered by divers. It also came amid the circulation of a document by the government asking relatives of those who perished to agree to the wreck being designated a memorial site.
“The government’s decision to leave the MV Barima at the bottom of the Atlantic is premature and wicked,” Mohamed said in a video posted on his Facebook page.
“It is a decision that should not have been made while scores of families are still waiting on their loved ones who are still missing. To abandon the MV Barima now is an act of cruelty towards those families,” he added.
Mohamed said relatives had contacted him and made it clear that they wanted the remains of their loved ones recovered, regardless of their condition.
The video included an appeal from a relative of one of the missing persons.
“All I’m kindly asking the President is to get up the boat because I really need my brother. If it’s a bone, I just need it. I don’t want no memorial, nothing. It will bring closure,” the woman said.
Mohamed accused the government of failing to exhaust every option and said it had not sought assistance from international operators with the equipment and expertise required to raise the ferry.
He questioned why there was already discussion about turning the wreck into a memorial and suggested that the decision not to salvage the vessel would prevent evidence from being properly examined.
“There is a reason this administration does not want the MV Barima brought to the surface. What are they hiding?” he asked.
Mohamed alleged that the vessel had been overloaded and was operating with only one engine. He also repeated claims that it had no functioning emergency position-indicating radio beacon, no search-and-rescue transponder, an inoperable anchor, no operational radar and life rafts which had expired in 2022.
Those allegations have not been independently established and are among the matters likely to come under examination during the Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy.
Mohamed also alleged that the MV Barima had been transporting construction materials and other cargo for major projects and businessmen in Region One which should instead have been moved by barge.
“We may never know the truth because they do not want to recover the vessel and let the evidence speak,” he contended.
The Opposition Leader also challenged statements by Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill that the ferry was not overloaded.
In a clip included in Mohamed’s video, Edghill said the vessel was licensed to carry 284 tonnes of cargo but was carrying 268 tonnes. The minister also said it was licensed to carry 397 passengers, while there were 116 aboard.
“The boat was not overloaded by passengers or by cargo. There was no engine problem or any mechanical problem,” Edghill said.
He maintained that accounts from survivors indicated that the incident was connected to the tide and the vessel taking in water rather than overloading.
“The misinformation of overloading as the cause of this incident must be dealt with for what it is—misinformation and something to create panic and public mischief—and we debunk that in the very strongest terms,” Edghill said.
This position was later changed by Edghill who said that he was going based on information given to him by employees, but it was later found out that the manifest did not have the correct information.
Mohamed, however, argued that the minister had relied on the vessel’s gross tonnage, which measures internal volume for regulatory purposes and does not establish the total weight that can safely be carried.
He said the relevant measurement was deadweight—the combined weight of cargo, passengers, fuel, water and other loads which a vessel can safely carry.
According to Mohamed, the MV Barima’s deadweight was 198 tonnes. He argued that if the vessel was carrying 268 tonnes, as Edghill had stated, it would have exceeded that figure by approximately 70 tonnes. The competing claims about the ferry’s certified capacity could not be independently verified.
Mohamed said Edghill, rather than the three Transport and Harbours Department workers charged with murder, should have been held responsible.
“Let me make my position clear. I, Azruddin Mohamed, Leader of the Opposition, am prepared to undertake this salvage operation,” he declared.
He said he had already engaged unnamed international partners who had assured him that they possessed the equipment, expertise and capacity to raise the vessel.
“Give me the permission to float this vessel,” he said. “I will recover the vessel so that the CoI can be properly conducted.”
Mohamed said he would seek to recover any remains still trapped in the ferry, provide closure to families and preserve the evidence needed for the inquiry.
“If the government truly has nothing to hide, then there should be no objection to bringing up the MV Barima,” he added.
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