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About N32m belonging to passengers and owners of a vessel, MV Endurance, plying Calabar-Limbe Inland waterways, has been stolen by pirates travelling from the Calabar Inland waterways enroute Limbe, in the Republic of Cameroon.
According to one of the victims, Mr. Kalu Mathew, who spoke with our correspondent in Calabar on Thursday, the incident occurred when a gang of pirates attacked and over-powered the passenger vessel.
Matthew, who was aboard the vessel, said, "On that fateful day (May 19, 2011), a gang of pirates, who had laid in ambush, shot sporadically on one of the windows of the captain. This was after making a futile attempt to order the captain of the vessel to halt the ship.
"On realising that the captain was unwilling to take orders from the leader, the bandits opened fire on the window of the captain; the captain took cover, while the thieves shot sporadically at the vessel.
"Consequently, they over-powered the vessel and robbed the passengers, taking away N32m from the crew and the passengers."
The victim, who claimed that he often travelled through the water from Nigeria to Cameroon, said before the increase in the criminal activities of the pirates, voyage to and fro both countries through the waterways used to be easy and enjoyable.
He recalled that when the police were contacted while the attack was going on; the security agents did not come to their rescue until after the pirates had finished their operation.
"This is wickedness; we were tormented for over 50 minutes by these miscreants and when we called on, the security operatives, they couldn't even show up until we were robbed of our possessions," he added.
Mathew blamed the laxity of the navy and marine police for the upsurge in the activities of pirates in recent times.
Source: The Punch