From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Cross River State Command has confirmed the abduction of twelve passengers in a boat from Calabar in Cross River State to Oron in Akwa Ibom State.
The incident occured early this week along the Calabar estuary.
Sources say the travellers boarded a boat in Calabar at the weekend and were bound for Oron in Akwa Ibom state.
Minutes into the journey, the boat was roughly overtaken by abductors who forced the crew to stop and transferred all the goods inside the boat to their own and zoomed off to an unknown destination, leaving the boat to float.
Cross River State Police Public Relations Officer SP Irene Ugbo confirmed the abduction to our correspondent in Calabar.
SP Ugbo disclosed that the abductors came in from the other end of the River and abducted the passengers mid sea.
She disclosed that such incident has been rare in recent time and that the command has launched a full scale investigation into the incident
“Security has increased along the Calabar estuary and the police and sister agencies including the Navy has come together to ensure safety.
“Nothing of such has happened lately and we are working to ensure the speedy release of the twelve abducted passengers”, she said.