Not too long ago, armed individuals who have not been recognised have robbed and abducted travellers who were travelling from Calabar to Oron.

In a thirty seconds video seen by reporters, a female passenger could be heard sounding the alarm and pleading with authorities to come to their aid.

She made an impassioned plea for assistance, stating that they were apparently abandoned in the middle of nowhere; however, she did not disclose the amount of time that had passed since they had left the beaches of Calabar before the unfortunate event.

“Please, if you guys are viewing this video on my status, we need assistance, please raise an alert, I am heading for a wedding in Akwa Ibom when we were robbed, the gunmen came and abducted all the males (male passengers), including the boat driver. I am pleading with you all to rescue us, just raise an alarm.

“Please, we need assistance, we are across the water, we don’t know where we are, we are at the first branch from the pick up location (possibly the Jetty),” the victim added. “We are just here with a Reverend Sister as well as other females.”

SP Irene Ugbo, the Police Public Relations Officer, verified the event when she was approached about it. She also said that they had been rescued, however she did not provide any information on the number of people that were saved.

According to her account, there was a prompt response from both the Nigerian Navy and the Marine Police, who gave the pirates a hard pursuit and forced them to leave their captives behind.

Vanguard was informed by a reliable source of information that the concerned boat and her occupants had been saved, and that the kidnappers had fled after seeing the naval gunboats.