2 officers ‘missing’ as naval gunboat capsizes in Delta

Two officers of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Warri, went missing following a mishap at a bay in Escravos, Warri south-west local government area of Delta state.

A source said the corpse of one of the officers had been found, but efforts made to confirm the development from N. B. Lamu, base information officer, were unsuccessful, as he could not be reached on telephone.

The source dismissed the report that it was an attack from militants, insisting that it was an accident.

The local government is known to be a stronghold of the militants, as majority of the attacks on oil installations under the current administration happened in Warri south-west.

On two separate occasions in the outgoing week, a group known as the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) vandalized pipelines belonging to Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).