FILE: pirates on a waterway: abduct five persons in Rivers

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

At least five persons were abducted in the early hours of Tuesday  along the Bonny River close to the Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne, in Eleme local government area of Rivers State.

The Officer-in-Charge of the Marine Police, Bonny, Solomon Adeniyi, a Superintendent of Police, who confirmed this to, (Kristina Reports),a Bonny based online newspaper disclosed that “five people were kidnapped after Onne Port. They were attacked while cruising in a 10-passenger speedboat around 0730 Hours this morning”.

According to him, the victims were two females and three males.

He added that based on jurisdiction, the incident has been reported to the Marine Police in Port Harcourt by the boat driver”.

An official of the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF), who prefers anonymity, further revealed that the attacked speedboat was “a one outboard engine powered speedboat that carries 10 passengers, which was on its way from Bonny to Port Harcourt this morning”.

He narrated that five of the passengers were abducted and the other passengers allowed to continue the journey to Port Harcourt, adding that the abductees were yet to be identified and their destination yet unknown.

It would be recalled that since the abduction of 12 persons in January this year, the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route has been free of attacks bypirates  until this morning’s incident.

The Rivers Police Command has not commented on the attack of today as at the time of filing this report.