Delta: Scores Killed As Sea Pirates Engage Security Operatives In Gun Fight
Scores of people were killed on Wednesday following a gun battle between security operatives and suspected sea pirates.
Leadership reports that officials of the marine components of the Bayelsa State Police Command and soldiers attached to the Joint Military Task Force, code named Operation Pulo Shield engaged the suspects in a fierce gun fight at about 2.00am in an oil rig operated by Lone Star Drilling Company in Gbarain and Ogbeinbiri communities of Southern Ijaw.
Related: Pirates Kidnap Captains Of Two Tugboats In Bayelsa
The state police commissioner, Hillary Okpara, and JTF spokesperson, Lt.Col.Anka Abdullahi, confirmed the incident.
The force spokesperson said the incident occurred when the suspects who were about five in numbers tried to take over a flow station in Ogboinbiri.
Okpara said some of the workers at the oil servicing company sustained bullet wounds, and that some of the suspects were killed in the gun fight but could not ascertain the number of casualties.
One of the security operatives who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Their main target was to remove the weapons attached to a gunboat used for protecting the rig. They wanted to steal the guns in the boat,” he said, noting, however, that the policemen were at alert and immediately replied the bandits with a volley of bullets and sustained the shooting until they repelled the attack.
“All l can tell you is that some of the pirates must have been hit by the police bullets. They were in the river and it is believed that those who were hit must have fallen into the river. It is expected that their bodies would float after two days.
“The pirates had come with the intention to remove the weapons, very sophisticated ones, on the gunboat. They came with a generator and an electric filing tool which they intended to use to remove the weapons if they had succeeded in their operation. Unfortunately, they were repelled by the policemen guarding the rig.”
Related: Pirates Allegedly Kill Two In Bayelsa State
It was further gathered that the hoodlums regrouped and later stormed the facility in a reprisal attack but were over powered by the policemen who eventually chased them out of the area.
Source: Legit.ng
