Leadership (Abuja)

Nigeria: Gunmen Seize 12 Sailors in Ship Attack Off Nigerian Coast

By Christiana Esebonu, 3 July 2010

Lagos — Gunmen have kidnapped 12 foreign sailors after attacking a cargo ship in the waters off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region.

The attack according to Navy spokesman David Nabaida left one of the crew members injured from gunshots while 12 were taken hostage.

Nabaida said information he has is that the attacked vessel, the BBC Polonia, is German-flagged, but according to the MarineTraffic.com website, it is an Antigua Barbuda registered ship which was heading to Nigeria's Onne port, situated on the Bonny Estuary, close to the oil hub of Port Harcourt.

The navy managed to board the vessel and sailed it to safety at Bonny anchorage, Nabaida said.

The crew member who was injured in the attack is Ukrainian and is in a stable condition at a hospital in Bonny, he added.

Nabaida identified the seized crew as seven Russians, two Germans, one Lithuanian, a Latvian and another Ukrainian.

The Baltic state of Lithuania confirmed from Vilnius that one of its nationals was among the snatched seafarers. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Tagged: Business, Corruption, Nigeria, Petroleum, West Africa

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Comments 1 to 2 of 2 Post a comment

  • Prctocol84@hotmail.com
    Jul 4 2010, 18:37
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    Hopefully, Nigeria is not becoming Somalia where pirates can kidnap foreign and domestic ships and ask for milions of naira as ransom.Nigerian government must not negotiate with these groups at all rather should deal with them ruthlessly.However, oil companies must stop creating ecological problems in these areas they drill the oil that will only permanently put people's agricultural way of life in peril.Nigerian Government must give the oil companies strict conditions for which these companies should operate with no bribe and corruption involved.

  • muhammadu
    Jul 4 2010, 21:38
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    I agree with you, ABSOLUTELY NO RANSOM PAYMENT!!! These criminal are definitely trying to copy what the Somalis are doing, but they have to understand that Somalia is a lawless country. I hope Nigeria has not become lawless to this point where criminals can just do what they want and get away with it. Government must pursue these hooligans, caught them and teach them a lesson by sending them off to PRISON CAMP where they belong. I also agree that Shell or BP should clean up the environmental mess in this region, but kidnapping is not the way to solve the problem. These kidnappers have to rehabilitate themselves and find other ways to make a living.