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Gunmen have attacked a vessel belonging to Bobon International Oil Limited off the coast of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State abducting six Russians and another expatriate believed to be an Estonian.
Our correspondent gathered that the expatriates were abducted at a time the security sources described as “wee hours of Tuesday”
Though the identities of the attackers and their motives were not known, security sources described them as pirates.
The incident which had created tension and fear of resurgence of kidnapping of expatriates in the Niger Delta region occurred along the Pennington River.
Fifteen workers were said to be on board the vessel which was believed to be sailing from the Pennington Offshore Terminal situated 16 miles to the entrance of Fishtown River
when the incident happened.
While eight of the workers were said to have arrived Nigerian Port at Onne after escaping the attack, seven others were unlucky as they were captured by the bandits and taken to an unknown destination.
A source told our correspondent that communities close to the Coast of Pennington are host to Chevron’s oil platform in the area and belong to the company’s cluster known as the KEFFES communities.
Operatives of the Joint Task Force, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield and the Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy were said to be combing the creeks to locate the whereabouts of the foreigners.
Confirming the incident the Media Coordinator, JTF, Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, told our correspondent that operatives of the outfit had intensified search for the expatriates.
He said, “Some unknown gunmen attacked a vessel and abducted seven persons consisting of six Russians and one Estonian national. We have deployed our naval elements to comb the area and track down the kidnappers. We have also alerted all operational bases.”
