At least three persons have been slain by gunmen in Port Harcourt, the state capital of Rivers.
At around 3 p.m. on Thursday, an unknown number of attackers ambushed and assaulted a convoy of Toyota Prado jeeps on the Rumuokoro flyover in the state’s Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, and then started the fire.
Three officers were murdered, one was abducted, and a significant amount of cash was taken during the lengthy gun duel.
The attackers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, were described as wearing military camouflage and as
Channels Television got in touch with SP Grace Iringe-Koko, the Rivers State Command’s public relations officer, who stated the incident’s specifics were still hazy and that the Command was looking into it.
She said that while the oil executive was being escorted by three police officers, he was kidnapped and brought somewhere else.
She said that the assailants, who arrived in a green minivan and seemed to be a military patrol, ordered the convoy to stop before starting a fire.
The victim of the kidnapping, according to the police, worked as a director for the IGPES Group, a Port Harcourt-based oil and gas servicing and maintenance firm.
An inquiry for comments was not immediately answered by the business.
No organization has taken credit for the attack, and police were unable to quickly provide a motive.
In Nigeria, kidnapping for ransom is a significant security issue that affects both affluent businesses and impoverished farmers who are frequently taken in large-scale abductions in the north.
Nigeria’s numerous billion-dollar oil and gas reserves are located in the Niger Delta.
Nigeria’s oil production was drastically reduced and government income was negatively impacted in the 2000s due to terrorist attacks on oil installations and the abduction of local and foreign oil employees.
Although assaults have decreased as a result of a government-sponsored amnesty program for oil rebels in 2009, rare occurrences, such as widespread oil theft, continue to occur in the area.
According to estimates, Nigeria, a member of OPEC and one of Africa’s top producers of crude oil, loses up to $2 billion year to pipeline sabotage and oil theft.
