Death toll in Bille pirates’ attack rises

Florence Uwaeme

Death toll in the Saturday’s pirates’ attack on travellers on New Calabar River has risen to three, theportcitynews learnt on Sunday.

While two persons died on Saturday from gunshot wounds, the third person died on Sunday at an undisclosed medical facility.

Unidentified gunmen had attacked three Bille passenger boats en-route Port Harcourt, killing at least two passengers while three others were fatally wounded.

According to a source, all three attacks took place yesterday morning and one of the boats was carted away.

The source stressed that the third boat sent to rescue the passengers from the waterways was perforated with bullets by the pirate and is feared to have sunk in the middle of the river.

The source said further that one of the boats was conveying a family and guests of a wedding taking place in Port Harcourt, adding that the gunmen forcibly hijacked the boat and their belongings while abandoning the passengers at a nearby mangrove.

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The incident forced the Degema Local Government Chairman, Tony Philmoore, to cancel his trip to Buguma, headquarters of Asari Toru Local Government Area where the father of former Senior Special Adviser to Governor Wike on Special Projects, George Kelly, is to be buried.

Dr Philmoore returned to monitor and coordinate security from home.

The source, however, said that the pirates may not be different from the ones that attacked a Port Harcourt boat from Bakana last Friday because of their modus operandi and timing.

It was gathered that the naval merchants who used to patrol the New Calabar River and Bille creeks on gunboats were said to have been given additional responsibility to protect Bakana creeks as a result of recent attacks there.

This might have whittled down their operations along the Bille axis and given the pirates room to attack.