Four construction workers at a dredging site along the Nembe waterways in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State were kidnapped by gunmen on Saturday night, thus heightening the insecurity in the state.
The men, all of them Nigerians, who were said to be working for Setraco Nigeria Ltd, were seized at about 9pm near Agbakabriye, at the site on the Ogbia-Nembe road.
They were identified as Caleb Agene, Otuke Magic Kingdom, Gabriel Oghene and Godwin Odukpong.
The abduction of the construction workers comes on the heels of the setting up an 11-man Marine Security Task Force headed by Mr Ebikabowei Victor-Ben, aka Boy Loaf, a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
"The dredging crew members were whisked away from their dredging base by the armed men who came in a speedboat. We heard sporadic shooting Saturday night but we never [knew] it was from the dredging firm base," a witness said.
The Southern Ijaw Communities and Nembe creeks have in recent times become a beehive of violent crimes such as kidnapping, sea piracy, pipeline vandalization and oil theft.
The activities of the hoodlums also extend to the neighboring communities of Azuzama and Ekeni, in Ekeremor Local Government Areas.