Tina Amanda
Chairman Degema Local Government Council, Tony Philmon, has debunked the rumour making rounds that pirates ambushed police escorts and abducted two along Degema-Bakana waterways.
Pirates reportedly kidnapped two civilians after an ambush by a group of pirates.
The pirates, who were said to be in two gunboats, opened fire on another boat said to be carrying some important personalities.
It was gathered that while three of the four policemen escorting the VIPs had jumped into the water and swam to safety, the fourth policeman, was beaten and dumped in the river, while his rifle was taken away.
A security source claimed that apart from the gun that was taken away by the hoodlums, three other AK-47 rifles belonging to the police got missing in the sea.
It was learnt that the policemen were from the Special Protective Unit in Benin, Edo State while the incident occurred between Bakana and Degema communities in Rivers State.
The pirates, according to the source, left with one rifle and two civilians after they were sure that nobody was present within the scene to attack them.
But Philmon told our correspondent Tina Amanda that such incident did not occur along Degema-Bakana waterways on Tuesday 26th May, as alleged by the report.
According to him, it is an attempt by some highly placed person in the state to sabotage the security effort of the Council in combating criminal activities on Degema waterways.
“There is no attack in Degema-Bakana some high powered person are sabotaging the complimentary effort of the Council to make sure sea piracy is stamped out, and general criminal activities are stamped out in our waterways”
He affirmed that the Council is working effortlessly to tackle all criminal elements coming into the state to attack Rivers people and commit various kind of crimes on the waterways in the state.
All effort made to reach the Police Public Relation Officer, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, proved abortive.
