Twice last week sea pirates engaged the Navy in a gun battle off the coast of Calabar in Nigerian and Cameroonian waters, the Nigeria navy fired back, killing the six pirates, and wounding one other who is in custody.
The operation is the latest in a string of victories for the Nigerian navy that has ramped up its presence offshore and bolstered it with support from its air forces. In the last two weeks the navy has killed 18 pirates in battles and arrested five others the same spokesman informed the news source.
Twice last week sea pirates engaged the Navy in a gun battle off the coast of Calabar in Nigerian and Cameroonian waters, the Nigeria navy fired back, killing the six pirates, and wounding one other who is in custody.
The operation is the latest in a string of victories for the Nigerian navy that has ramped up its presence offshore and bolstered it with support from its air forces. In the last two weeks the navy has killed 18 pirates in battles and arrested five others the same spokesman informed the news source.
In one of the encounters, four suspected sea pirates were feared dead on Tuesday while a naval officer, Seaman, Barau Ibrahim, suffered a gunshot wound after a shootout with men of the NNS Victory of the Nigerian Navy in Calabar along the Calabar channel.
The navy succeeded in capturing one of the suspected sea pirates, who gave his name as Bassey Bassey, and brought him into the NNS Victory base.
The leader of the navy team, Lieutenant Linus Osuman narrated that at about 8.30am Tuesday as they were escorting a Cameroonian vessel, the BRENDA CORLETT, in their gunboat when they came across a couple of speed boats around Parrot Island around the Oron Bar.
He said immediately, the boats who they suspected wanted to rob the vessel, sighted the naval team they took off. He said they gave chase and one of the boats disappeared into the creeks. The other developed engine problem and stalled.
He said while they were approaching the boat that had broken down, about seven men rose from the boat and started firing at them with AK47s. He said they had to return fire and in the process at least four of the robbers were hit and they fell into the water. The others jumped into the river.
He said they managed to get hold of one of them as he kept bobbing in and out of the water. The captured robber had charms tied all over him, he said. No bodies were however found. Osuman said their boats would return to the scene to see if they would recover anything.
The wounded naval official, Ibrahim, said they would have given chase into the creek if they were in a smaller boat. He was thankful for being alive, assuring that the navy would continue to do all it can to protect the waterways.
Commander of the NNS Victory, Commodore James Oluwole, said they conduct their patrols every day and such encounters was a bad day for the robbers.
“The waterways requires daily presence to heep it safe. The day we are not here, they would do havoc. We shall continue to sustain this operation,” Oluwole said.
Captain of the BRENDA CORLETT, Richard Nkollei, was thankful for the navy’s intervention, saying since they established their presence in the waterways; they have not been witnessing such incidents as yesterdays.
The suspected robber said he was Bassey Bassey, an ex-militant from Akpabuyo in Cross River State.
Corroborating, the Commander, NNS Jubilee, Akwa Ibom, Commodore Isaac Ogbole, also said the joint patrol teams of Nigerian Navy – NNS Jubilee and NNS Victory, Calabar, were responsible for the feat.
He said that local fishermen in Ibaka, Mbo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom, briefed the naval officers about the operations of the pirates in the area.
The commander said the pirates, who were operating in two boats, pretended as if the boats were passenger boats.
He said that the naval boats had encircled the pirate boats to check if actually the boats were passenger boats.
Ogbole said that when the officers got to the location as briefed by the fishermen, the pirates were taken by surprise as their efforts to engage the men of the Nigerian Navy in gun battle ended in their waterloo.
He said that, as the naval officers tried to examine the boats, the pirates quickly brought out arms to shoot at the patrol teams.
“The naval officers behaved as if they did not have any information about them. They decided to go past them by encircling them.
“But the pirates, who pretended as if their boats were passenger boats, suddenly brought out arms to engage the naval operatives.
“It was at that instance that the operatives were convinced that the people were pirates and not what they pretended to be,” he said.
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