Unidentified gunmen killed five policemen and seized several weapons in a raid on a police station in the oil-rich southern Nigerian state of Rivers on Sunday, a police spokeswoman said.
The attack took place early on Sunday on Bonny Island, the site of one of Nigeria’s largest oil and gas export terminals, spokeswoman Ireju Barasua said.
It was not immediately clear who had carried out the assault on the Bonny Divisional Police Station.
Rivers state has witnessed a surge in attacks in recent weeks by a rebel group seeking greater autonomy for the oil-producing region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
MEND said in an emailed statement that it was not responsible for Sunday’s raid, which it said was carried out by local youths angry at the government’s handling of the trail of its arrested leader Henry Okah.
A Nigerian court is due to rule this week on whether Okah, who leads a militant faction of MEND, can be tried in secret as previously ordered.
Okah, who was arrested in Angola in September and handed to Nigeria in February, faces the death penalty if convicted of gun-running, treason, and conspiracy to wage war in Nigeria.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has been forced to shut down at least 169,000 barrels a day of production following an attack on a pipeline leading to the Bonny terminal over a week ago.
There has been no word on when output will resume and Shell has yet to say whether three subsequent attacks have affected output.
MEND has promised to step up its bombings and inflict further damage to Nigeria’s oil production, which is also being curtailed by a strike over labour conditions by workers at Exxon Mobil, currently Nigeria’s leading producer