The Nigerian Navy Forward Operation Base in Bonny, Rivers State said they had rescued 20 passengers including women and children on the Port Harcourt-Bonny sea route.
The Commander of the NNFOB in Bonny, Maksum Mohammed, who disclosed this to newsmen, on Monday, said the Navy also uncovered a new strategy adopted by pirates to abduct travellers.
Mohammed said intelligence suggested that some boat operators might be working with the pirates to launch attacks.
According to him, the boat operators would load fully, get to the entrance of a river midway on the high sea, fake engine problem, and while pretending to be fixing the problem, the pirates would swoon on them and whisk the passengers into the creeks and demand ransoms.
He said the latest incident showed a boat loaded with 20 passengers including infants, which he said almost turned fatal.
He said: “This is a clear case of wilful endangerment of passenger safety. Why would any mariner in his right senses sail with passengers on board a boat whose engines were outright faulty and unable to sustain an hour’s journey?
“And then, we’re also dealing with recent cases of attacks on the river; what if these criminals had seen and approached them and taken them captive?
“What leverage would they have had to escape their assailants? It’s quite unfortunate that hapless passengers could be exposed to avoidable risks and for the exorbitant amounts they pay?”
Mohammed further said the case appeared to be a simulation, saying the places they saw the boat twice were exactly dangerous places for attacks.
He said, “This is just in case, maybe, there were some plans because nearly all the kidnap incidents occurred where there was an engine failure or a simulation in front of a river mouth, which now resulted in the kidnap as they come out and then pick their victims and carry on.
“We encountered the same boat again simulating another engine failure in front of another river entrance. Simulating another engine failure – as far as I’m concerned, I’ll use simulation – in a place that is also known for kidnap activities.
“It was at that point that we decided to evacuate the passengers onto our boats and continued with the movement.”
Mohammed advised the coastal state governments and local government areas to urgently consider deploying ferries on the waterways, especially, the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route as a safer, sustainable, and subsidised means of transport.
Our correspomdent reports that there had been related cases of pirate attacks and abduction of passengers on the waterway.
Last week, 10 passengers who were abducted by pirates on their way to Port Harcourt from Bonny were freed after four days in captivity.
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria led by the Chairman, Port Harcourt Commercial District, Israel Pepple, led a protest to the Government House, to register their complaints on the frequent attacks of water travellers by pirates and solicited the intervention of the government for more security to protect them and their passengers.
