Personnel of the Nigerian Navy carried out a sting operation on the hideout of some sea robbers in Bayelsa State.
The operation was conducted on Friday following an intelligence report on the activities of the criminals.
A statement on Sunday by the Nigerian Navy Director of Information, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, said the criminals fled upon sighting the operatives and that sophisticated weapons were recovered.
He said, “NNS SOROH as part of its determination to rid its area of operation of illegal weapons before, during, and after the off-cycle governorship election on Friday, November 10, 2023 by 2 am, raided a suspected sea robbers’ hideout.
“The base, acting on credible information, swiftly deployed her anti-sea robbery patrol team from one of its Naval Security Stations, which is at Foropa community in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Accordingly, on sighting the Nigerian Navy Patrol team gunboats the suspected sea robbers fled into the bushes.
“During the raid in Southern Ijaw, NNS SOROH special anti-sea robbery team further cordoned and searched the area and recovered one general-purpose machine gun with 100 links, 2 x AK-47 rifles, one locally-made long gun, 2 x Tavor magazines, 11 rounds of 7.62 (NATO), 2 x cartridge rounds of pump-action gun.
“Additionally, other recovered items include 2 x 200HP Yamaha Engine, 5 x Baofeng Radio, a Small Techno Android phone, one GPS phone, and 3x small techno phones as well as assorted camouflage uniforms. The camp was subsequently deactivated to deny the criminals any shelter within the vicinity.”
Ayo-Vaughan said the Navy would continue to conduct operations that would prevent criminals from perpetrating crime on the nation’s waters.
