Police injure pirates in gun battle, rescue four boat passengers
Odahiekwu Ogunde, Yenagoa
The Marine Department of the Bayelsa State Police Command has foiled an attack on a passenger boat and rescued four passengers on-board along the Nembe-Brass waterways.
The command, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, SP Asinim Butswat, noted that the incident happened on Wednesday while marine police operatives were on patrol of the Nembe-Brass waterways.
Butswat said: “On 17 August 2022 at about 1730 hours, operatives of the Marine Department of the Bayelsa State Police Command, while on patrol along the Nembe- Brass waterways came under attack by sea pirates who were robbing passengers and attempting to kidnap some of them in a speedboat named Tari Marine 2.
“The operatives repelled the attack, subdued the pirates by their superior firepower and rescued the passengers.
“The pirates ran to a nearby creek and escaped with bullets wounds. They abandoned their speedboat, with one military camouflage, one bullet proof jacket and one cutlass.”
Butswat said the State Police Commissioner, Ben Nebolisa Okolo, had ordered the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to carry out a discreet investigation to unravel the identify of the sea pirates.
