Despite the ‘Christmas ceasefire’ declared by Nigeria’s largest militant group, suspected militants early Tuesday stormed a police station in Rivers state, in Nigeria’s oil producing Niger Delta region, killing three policemen, sources at the state police command said.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, when several gunmen invaded the police station from the sea and opened fire on the policemen on duty.
The three policemen were not named, but the sources said they included an Inspector and two constables at the station, located in the Ahoada West Council area of the state.
It was not immediately clear why the gunmen attacked the station, but PANA reported it was in line with similar deadly attacks on some police stations in the state.
Tuesday’s attack is the latest in a series of violence perpetrated by suspected militants in the state and the entire region in recent times.
Last week, a jetty operated by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Okrika was attacked by suspected militants, who set it on fire, causing several deaths.
In nearby Bayelsa, the aged father of two prominent government officials were kidnapped within the past week.
Only one of the two have been freed.
Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua Friday called a meeting of security chiefs to deliberate on ways to stem the rising violence.
PANA learnt that militants in the oil region have been angered by a leaked report, which indicated plans by the Joint Military Task Force deployed to the region to attack some camps operated by the militants, with a view to decimating them.
Nigeria’s military hierarchy has launched an investigation into the leakage of the highly-classified report.