30 August 2013, Calabar – In what looks like a revenge mission, pirates Thursday, at Ikang Jetty in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State, killed a policeman and a civilian.
Last Tuesday, officers and men of the Nigerian Navy (NNS Victory) Calabar gunned down four sea pirates near the Atlantic Ocean who attempted to rob a Camerounian vessel bound for Nigeria.
One out of the pirates on board an engine boat was captured alive while the other two disappeared in the sea. Two other boats loaded with other pirates escaped into the creeks.
The incident occurred in the wee hours of Thursday night when some men emerged from a speed boat at the Atlantic Ocean end of the jetty without provocation opened fire on the border security patrol base at the jetty.
The border patrol team made up of the army, Customs Service, Police, Navy and other security agencies were taken unawares.
The State command of the Nigeria Police through its Police Public Relations Officer, Hogan Bassey, confirmed the incident saying the attack was unprovoked and that the command was yet to determine the cause.
He said they were on the trail of the criminals and assured the people that those involved would be brought to book.
At Ikang, it was learnt that the attack might not be unconnected with the Tuesday incident where navy killed some pirates along the Calabar waterways near the ocean.
The Nigerian Navy had engaged the pirates in a gun duel leading to the death of four of the robbers and arrest of one of them, as he refused to reveal the identity of the slain policeman saying until the family is informed.
Bassey had in an interview disclosed that he was an indigene of Akpabyuo Local Government Area which is not far from where the attack took place.
But some residents of Ikang who spoke to journalists said they were convinced that the attack was a revenge mission for the robbers killed earlier in the week.
One of the security men who pleaded anonymity said they thought the pirates were fishermen or residents of the area but while watching them disembark from their boat, the gun duel gunshot resulting in the death of their colleague and a civilian.
– This Day
