Boat Operators Decry Pirates Attack On Bonny, Nembe Routes

Water transportation along Bonny and Nembe water-way is becoming more risky as sea pirates launch incessant robbery attacks on passengers and drivers of speed boats plying the routes.

In a recent incident which took place last weekend, passengers were brutalized and robbed of their handsets and other valuables.

Reacting to the incident the chairman of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Bonny /Nembe Unit, Comrade Martins Aboh, condemned the robbery attacks by people he called miscreants and criminals who find favour in robbing innocent citizens on the rivers. He said that the refarious activity of the criminals is affecting the water transportation business along the routes and that his members are mostly affected.

Comrade Aboh appealed to security operatives to mount surveillance on the sea route to check the menace of the criminals on the route.

Some of the victims who spoke to The Tide confirmed the attacks. Mrs Ibiene Opuwari, a fish trader who shuttles Nembe and Port Harcourt, narrated that as a result of this regular attacks by the criminals on traders, fishes are scarce and the prices are soaring, noting that no reasonable human being will like to trade or travel in an unsafe route or environment.

Fishermen are not also left out by these pirates, they attack them leaving buyers with no fish to buy, she added.

The Tide source said that the Nigerian Navy, which is billed to check the criminal activities of these hoodlums along the creeks, said the they lack speed boats that would facilitate their surveillance operations in the creeks.