Twelve police officers on an unspecified special assignment went missing on friday after an ambush by suspected militants in the Niger Delta, Alex Akhigbe, police spokesman, said on Saturday.
?The incident, which occurred near Azuzama, a village in Bayelsa state, is the most serious attack in more than a year and it comes in the wake of a threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND's, promised to resume hostilities against Nigeria's oil and gas facilities in the oil-rich delta.
"Their boat developed some mechanical fault. While they were trying to fix the boat, they were ambushed by some militants," Akhigbe said. A rescue team has been assembled for the "recovery" of the officers, he said
He however declined to say whether authorities believed the officers had died in the attack and whether any suspect have been arrested in connection with the attack.
MEND had said the promised attack " is a direct reprcussion of the forged letter contrived by the Nigerian and South African governments purporting to have originated from MEND and was used as evidence against its leader, Henry Okah for which a 13 years sentence was passed."
The Niger Delta region houses several of the Nigeria's oil wells from where the country produces about 2 million of barrels of oil a day, which is mainly exported to the U.S.
Despite the billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of the government, many in the region remain desperately poor, living in polluted waters without access to proper medical care, education or work.
Militants and opportunistic criminals had been on an uprising since 2006 until a government amnesty in 2009 saw ex-fighters giving up their arms in exchange for cash payments and job trainings both within and outside the country. Despite the amnesty however, sporadic kidnappings and attacks by militants who are yet to benefit from the amnesty offers continued.
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