Pirates hijack passenger boat at Nember-Brass waterways

Barely 48 hours after an ambush that killed three passengers on Tuesday, gunmen suspected to be sea pirates on Thursday hijacked another passenger boat along Nembe-Brass waterways.
The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that the pirates trailed the commercial boat after it had discharged its occupants at Brass from Nembe before hijacking the boat.
Community sources who witnessed the incident said the suspected pirates armed with sophisticated weapons shot repeatedly into the air before seizing the boat.
The driver of the boat and his crewmen were later dropped off at the creeks by the pirates who took the boat to unknown destination.
Confirming the incident, the Chairman of Bayelsa Chapter of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Mr Lloyd Sese, said that the activities of pirates on the waterways was making life unbearable.
Sese said that the union had appealed to relevant authorities to come to the aid of commuters on the waterways, saying that the attack on boats has become a frequent affair.
A youth leader from Brass Local Government Area of the state, Mr Robert Desmond, condemned the incessant sea pirate attacks on the Nembe-Brass waterways.
Desmond described the acts as not only senseless but inhuman and wondered why a group of Bayelsa youths should be terrorising their own people.
He urged security personnel to be on the alert particularly as the Brass-Nembe people are in dire need of marine security.
He called on them to apprehend the pirates, destroy every network and arsenal they may have in their possession in order to bring respite to the community.
Mr Asinim Butswat, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and Spokesman for the Bayelsa Police Command, also confirmed the incident.
Butswat said that the command was intensifying efforts to check criminality and restore security in the area.