By Eric Moore
SUSPECTED sea pirates have kidnapped five passengers after their boat was attacked in the waterways between Degema and Akuku-Toru Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
Pentoks News gathered that the passenger boat was travelling from Bille in the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State to Port Harcourt when the hoodlums struck.
According to sources, six persons were onboard the boat, but the gun-wielding gang, abducted five and escaped to an unknown destination.
The Executive Director of Youths Environmental Advocacy Center, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene, in a statement, disclosed that one of the occupants of the boat, a woman, took ill and was taken to the hospital for medical attention.
Dumnamene said: “The boat that was attacked by the pirates and people taken hostage was sailing from Bille to Port Harcourt. Six people were onboard; but, five were taken hostage.
”The sixth person, an early woman, is reported to have been sick and was heading to Port Harcourt for medical attention.
“The YEAC-Nigeria volunteers also reported that according to the woman and freed boat driver, the elderly woman pleaded with the pirates for her to be freed on her health and age grounds and the pirates heeded her request and freed her and the boat driver.”
According to the source, “The pirates are said to have thus, freed the boat driver to take the woman to Port Harcourt while they evacuated five others into their own boat and zoomed off with them.
“All those onboard, including the driver, are all natives of the Bille Kingdom.”
Chairman of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Port Harcourt Commercial District, Israel Pepple, was said to have confirmed the incident.
He said that the attack actually took place near the Cawthorne Channel in Akuku-Toru LGA.
He stated: “Yes, it happened within Abonnema to Cawthorne Channel. Six of them, including the driver, were kidnapped.
“The police are aware because we reported it already. But, since then, we have not heard anything. We are calling for their unconditional release. Let the waterways be safe for our people to travel freely,” he pleaded.