Posted by AFP on
Gunmen on Monday afternoon shot dead two policemen escorting a boat belonging to Nigeria's main gas company in the oil-rich south of the country, police said.
LAGOS (AFP) - Gunmen on Monday afternoon shot dead two policemen escorting a boat belonging to Nigeria's main gas company in the oil-rich south of the country, police said.
"Two policemen were killed in a pirate attack whilst escorting a passenger boat to Bonny (Island)", a major oil and gas terminal, Felix Ogbaudu, police commissioner for the southern Rivers State, told AFP.
Dozens of foreign oil workers have been kidnapped over the past year in the state and militant groups have also carried out bomb attacks in its capital Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub.
Ogbaudu said the boat, belonging to Nigeria LNG Ltd, the country's biggest gas company, was travelling between Port Harcourt and the company's headquarters on Bonny Island.
The attack on the policemen came hours after two Croatians and a Montenegrin abducted last month in southern Nigeria were rescued by local security forces, according to industry sources and the Croatian foreign ministry in Zagreb.
Seven people were also shot dead on March 2 and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Port Harcourt.