Seven people were killed on Monday (August 16th) in an attack on a convoy taking workers to a Shell gas site in southeastern Nigeria, Nigerian police said Wednesday (August 18th).
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According to Imo State Police spokesman Michael Abatan, gunmen opened fire on a bus convoy on its way to a Shell gas plant in the area.
“
We lost a police officer and six employees in the attack,
” he told AFP, adding that an investigation was underway “
to arrest the attackers and determine the motive for the attack
”.
The site has been closed
SPDC, the Nigerian subsidiary of Shell, confirmed the attack "
by unknown gunmen on a convoy of buses taking personnel
" to a site in the Ohaji region.
“
We have since closed the site and the incident has been reported to police for investigation,
” the company said in a statement.
In the absence of a claim, the Nigerian authorities generally attribute this kind of attacks, frequent in the south-east, to the Biafran independence movement Ipob (Indigenous Peoples of Biafra), from the Igbo ethnic group.
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The attack on Monday, August 16 came on the very day of the enactment of a new energy law aimed at providing oil companies with a clearer framework for investing and working in Nigeria, as well as a better distribution of the resulting wealth. of the operation of the basement.