Unidentified Gunmen Kill One Naval Officer on a Nigeria LNG Naval Escort Boat

One Naval officer was killed and another was wounded, Monday morning, when unidentified gunmen on a speedboat attacked the Naval Escort boat of a Nigeria LNG Ferry in the dangerous waterways of the volatile Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Last year, militants suspected to be led by the notorious Ateke Tom attacked and killed two Nigerian Police escorts on a Nigeria LNG ferry carrying passengers across the Bonny Channel.

The waterways of the Niger Delta region have become dangerous since militants on speedboats terrorized and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, some local staff, and members of their families for huge ransoms. They have also attacked oil installations and reduced the oil export of Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa, and the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States of America.

The Niger Delta militants and kidnappers have accomplices in the Nigerian Armed Forces and the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). They have been engaged in illegal oil bunkering, and laundered huge ransoms through the leading Nigerian banks where their accomplices have invested millions of dollars stolen from public coffers.