Gunmen suspected of being pirates of the sea, in the early hours of Sunday attacked two oil facilities, killed three and kidnapped seven oil workers in Bayelsa.
The Nigerian News Agency (ANAN) learned that the pirates ambushed their unsuspecting victims in the Okoroma and Ogbokiri-Akassa communities of the Nembe and Brass local government areas in Bayelsa.
Sources close to the affected oil fields said gunmen reportedly shot dead two staff members of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company and a member of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).
The driver of his boat, an indigenous person from the Okoroma community, is still missing, according to local sources who witnessed the incident and narrated it to a NAN correspondent.
According to sources, in the ambush that occurred in Ogbokiri-Akassa in the Brass Local Government area, six oil workers who were allegedly carrying out maintenance work near their platform were kidnapped and quickly taken away.
It was further learned that Agip’s oil workers and their security personnel were attacked around 6 am while working near a collector in the deep swamp.
The spokesman for the NSCDC, Bayelsa Command, Mr. Ogbere Solomon, confirmed the incident on Sunday night.
Solomon said a member of the command was killed in the ambush, while two other missing were found and are currently receiving treatment at a medical center in Yenagoa.
“Yes, our officers were ambushed and attacked by unknown pirates while doing their legal duty to provide protection to some Agip oil workers near the Obama manifold in the local government Okoroma community of Nembe.
“One staff member died while the other two missing have been found and are responding to treatment,” he said.
Tarinyu Joseph, the youth president of the Okoroma clan, said indigenous people in the area recovered the bodies of the dead.
He added that the wounded were taken to the hospital while the driver of the boat, identified as his brother, is still missing.
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