Gunmen stormed a tanker ship off the coast of
Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, ransacking the vessel and kidnapping five
Indian sailors. This came as the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, codenamed
Operation Pulo Shield raised the alarm over increasing involvement of
foreigners in oil theft in the country.
The attack targeted the SP Brussels tanker
as it sat about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the coast of Niger Delta,
Medallion Marine said in a statement. The gunmen, the statement said, stole
personal belongings on board the ship in the attack and kidnapped the sailors. It
said those remaining on board later sailed the vessel safely to a port in
Lagos.
The attack on the tanker came the same day gunmen
abducted four South Koreans and a Nigerian working for Hyundai Heavy Industries
Co. in Bayelsa State.
Meanwhile, the JTF Commander, Maj.-Gen. Johnson
Ochoga, who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also called on the Nigerian
Immigration Service to always monitor the activities of foreigners in the
region. Operatives of the JTF, he said, had arrested 10 Indians and four
Nigerians on board an oil vessel, MT ASHKAY, within Nigerian territorial
waters.
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