By Samuel Oyadongha
Yenagoa—About six suspected  pirates, Monday, attacked boat passengers on the Nembe creek in the Nembe Local Govern-ment Area of Bayelsa State with many dispossessed of their cash and valuables.

A prominent business-man and paramount ruler of Igbeta Ewoama and other market women were said to have lost cash running into millions of naira in the attack.

The rampaging hoodlums, according to eyewitnesses, attacked no fewer than four boats conveying traders heading to Yenagoa, the state capital, for business.

It was gathered that the armed pirates took the passenger boats by surprise at a point close where sand was being dredged for the construction of the Nembe Road project.

Over 20 soldiers of Joint Task Force were stationed in the area to protect the workers in the dredging site.

Some of the passengers, it was learnt, were ordered by the gun wielding hoodlums to jump into the river after being dispossessed of their cash and other valuables.

Sources said those taken away in the stolen boat were asked to jump off close to the high sea. But no life was reported lost.

State Chairman of the Maritime Union, Chief Lloyd Sese, confirmed the incident when contacted, lamenting that pirates attack had been occurring without challenge on the waterways and creeks.

Sese said though loss of lives had not been recorded in 2011, “over 25 persons were killed in similar attacks in 2010.”