Uchenna Nwafor, Yenagoa
Three Security personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Nigerian Police were on friday night ambushed and killed by suspected sea pirates along the Okoron Creek of Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa.
Loading ...While local sources from Azuzuama and other neighbouring communities, close to the scene of the incident, claimed that three civil Defence Corps personnel were killed in the attack, the Bayelsa State Commandant of the NSCDC, Desmond Agu,confirmed the incident and claimed that two policemen and one NSCDC personnel were killed in the attack.
One of the deceased NSCDC personel is an indigine of Okpoduare community in Southern Ijaw Area.
Already a distress call has been sent by the State Police Command to the Inspector General of Police,Ibrahim Idris in Abuja.
But Senior Police source, who faulted the claim by the NSCDC command that the murdered security personel were on routine anti-pipeline vandal patrol before the attack, said the attack occured when the security personel were on escort duty not known to the Bayelsa Police command.
It was also gathered that the incident has provoked an emergency security meeting among top commandant of the NSCDC in Yenagoa.
The suspected pirate at about 7pm on Friday had laid ambush for the security personel around the Okoron Community enroute the Tebidaba flow station operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
It was gathered that though the security personel put up a good fight in the exchange of fire, the superior gunfire of the gunmen killed three security personel immediately, while three others survived with lethal gun shot injuries.
According to the source, ” The news got to us at about 9pm. When we dispatched our security surveillance team to the area, we saw a military gun boat had arrived with some NSCDC personel that escaped the attack.”
“They seem to have recovered the corpses of the killed security personel without their rifles. The unknown gunmen must have went away with the guns.”
One of the security personel that survived confirmed that the escort duty team were on their way from Koluama community before they came under attack.
The sources blamed the security personel for not moving with a gun boat when on duty along the creeks and waterways of Southern Ijaw, Brass, Nembe and Ekeremor Local Government areas of the state.
It would be recalled that unknown gunmen, suspected to be militants, ambushed and killed four soldiers and a civilian in Bayelsa State last month.
The suspects were said to have laid an ambush for the soldiers along the waterways of Letugbene, Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state.
