Bayelsa - The Bayelsa Police Command has confirmed the death of a boat driver, Sun Ebi, in an attack by armed men suspected to be sea pirates along the Brass waterways in the state.
The Public Relations Officer for the command, Mr Fidelis Odunna, disclosed this to newsmen on Thursday in Yenagoa.
He said that the late Ebi was attacked along with passengers on board the boat.
"The boat driver was discovered missing after the attack only for his corpse to be found floating on the river few days after," the PRO said.
Odunna also said that the command had taken delivery of over 40 gun boats procured by the state government to assist in a proposed campaign against sea piracy in the state.
Reacting to the pirate attack, the chairman of Brass chapter of the Maritime Workers' Union, Mr Magnus Angel, described the attack that led to the death of the boat driver as "shocking."
He explained that the passenger boat was actually attacked along the Brass waters last Tuesday at about 6 p.m on its way from Yenagoa to Brass Island.
“The boat was traveling from Yenagoa to Brass when the armed pirates attacked it.
``and in the confusion that followed, passengers jumped into the water, while the pirates ransacked their belongings.
"After the pirates left, the passengers resurfaced from the waters to continue their journey", Angel stated.
He said that as the passengers called out to the boat driver to come out, then they realized he was missing.
Angel said that following the discovery, the boat union members and other sympathisers entered the river to search for the body.
The Union chairman also said barely a day after the incident, another group of sea pirates attacked another boat along the Ogbolomabiri area of Nembe waterways but added that no casualty was recorded.
Angel called on the state government to save the indigenes of the coastal communities of the state from the recurrent sea pirates' attack.
"Bayelsa government should take proactive ways of ensuring the safety of lives our people who ply the waterways of the state on daily basis”, he said further.
NAN