A multinational force led by the Ghana Navy has launched a search for a vessel suspected to be carrying stolen cargo from the ship hijacked by Nigerian Pirates.

The Ghana Navy intercepted the ship, MT Mariam on Saturday and arrested eight suspected pirates who are currently in the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations.

But it has emerged that just before the interception, the pirates managed to transfer the ship’s cargo into another vessel.

Spokesperson for the Ghana Armed Forces, Colonel Aggrey Qaurshie says Ghana has enlisted the help of Nigeria, Togo and Benin to search for the stolen cargo.

The Ghana Navy did not receive information early enough to track the hijacked vessel hence its inability to cause the arrest before the cargo was offload into another vessel, he said.

Col. Aggrey Qaurshie told Joy News that since the whereabouts of the vessel are unknown, the search team would be “looking wide” for the stolen cargo.

The Ghana Navy will not give any details about the sort of cargo stolen from the ship.

The BNI has meanwhile begun interrogating the eight suspected Nigerian pirates hoping for information that could lead to the interception of the vessel carrying the stolen cargo.