Barely 48 hours after the Bonny Improvement Association (BIA) called for a revisit of issues relating to security on Bonny waterways, a military helicopter has allegedly shot at a cargo boat conveying goods to Bonny Island.

Though details were sketchy as at the time of this report, eyewitnesses say an unidentified military chopper descended to about 500 meters above sea level and opened fire on the passengers, who were mainly deckhands working on the boat, and injuring a yet-to ascertained number of persons.

An anonymous source informed Kristina Reports that “a military chopper shot at a boat conveying people and foodstuff from Port Harcourt to Bonny”.

“The local boat that just left here for Bonny on their way to within that Dutch Island area, a chopper or will I call it military flight or whatever, just come behind and bring their self low down, start shooting the wooden boat.”

“A boat driver said people were in that boat, that boat conveys garri, rice, with other other things and everybody knows that that is the source of quick transporting of foodstuffs to Bonny; the boat left Port Harcourt, making its way to Bonny.”

“It is not hidden, everybody saw it, the chopper flied through this way na, I can’t even call it chopper, it is a military flight because if it’s not a military flight, ordinary chopper cannot just start shooting people.”

When contacted, the Officer-in-charge of the Marine Police, Bonny, Solomon Adeniyi, a Superintendent of Police, confirmed receiving a report about the incident, adding that efforts were being made to get further details on the incident.

According to him, victims of the attack, which he said happened along the Bonny River at Dutch Island in Okrika LGA, were currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Okrika while the other survivors were being conveyed to Bonny.

It was yet unclear whether the chopper belonged to the Nigerian Air Force or Nigerian Navy, or any other arm of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Commanding Officer of the Forward Operating Base (FOB), Nigerian Navy, Bonny, Capt. Rafiu Oladejo told Kristina Reports that he could not confirm the veracity of the incident as it was being investigated.

Efforts to reach the 115 Special Operations Group, Nigerian Air Force, Port Harcourt to ascertain if they carried out any operations on the Bonny River proved abortive as at the time of this report.