About 200 passengers travelling to Bonny from Port Harcourt last Saturday, were left stranded at the Bonny Jetty in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The Tide investigation revealed that two passenger boats operating at the jetty were seized by a naval officer, who was yet to be identified as at the time of filing this report.
The motive of the naval officer was also yet to be confirmed.
Lamenting their ordeal, one of the passengers who simply gave his name as Green, complained that the action of the naval officer was inhuman.
Another traveller, Mrs Penninah Brown, complained that there was no other route to Bonny and appealed that an alternative route to Bonny be charted in the near future.
Some of the boat drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that the naval officer who allegedly seized the two passenger boats had warned the boat operators on the use of 200 horse power capacity boats on account that, 200 horse power capacity boats were being used by sea pirates to attack vessels on the high sea.
They observed, however, that operating the Port Harcourt- Bonny sea route with smaller capacity boats was unsafe against attacks by sea pirates.
They pleaded for higher capacity boats to enable them outrun sea pirates in case of attacks.
Attempts to get the navy to comment on the matter was unsuccessful.

Tonye Nria-Dappa