A boat belonging to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) was yesterday attacked by suspected Sea Pirats along the Tarabora creek in the Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State, leading to the death of three persons.
While one of the Staff was reported to have drowned following his bid to escape the attack and dived into the river, two others sustained gun -shot injury. Three others were reportedly killed by the volley of shots fired by the Pirates.
The Operatives of the Joint Military Task Force, according to the Media Coordinator of the Task Force, Lt. Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu were immediately deployed to the scene and are in search of the suspected pirates.
The corpse of the dead staff of the Agip company including one identified as Hector Abbey have been recovered, while two others have been declared missing .
The boat identified as MV Terra was ambushed by the gunmen when it was heading to the firm's Clough Creek flow station along Egbema-Angalabiri .
The sea Pirates shot the driver of the boat on the leg and three others .
A security source told LEADERSHIP that the recovered corpse of Abbey and others have been deposited at a private mortuary in Port Harcourt, while the driver of the boat is also receiving medical treatments in an undisclosed hospital.
It was gathered that the Agip boat was not escorted by security men when it was attacked.
When contacted, spokesman of JTF, Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed the incident to our correspondent saying that the NAOC boat was conveying staff of the firm to its Flow station before it was attacked by sea pirates,"the boat conveying some staff of AGIP was attacked by suspected sea robbers and one of the staff of the company died when he was attempting to escape into the river and drowned".
"Nwachukwu said the security outfit was on the trail of the armed men as investigation continued.
