Three employees of a Nigerian oil company murdered on duty

Three men working for Nigerian Agip Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Italian group Eni, were killed by assailants on Friday while they were conducting pipeline repair works in Bayelsa State in the south of Nigeria.

Without specifying their nationality, the commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps at the Bayelsa Command, Desmond Agu told AFP that the men were ambushed while they were repairing a pipeline operated by Agip.

The bodies of two of the killed employees were found in a river by a special team composed of men of the civil defense, army, and navy, he added.

A security source who requested anonymity said the victims were two engineers and a conductor and “sea pirates ambushed the oil workers”.

“The area is well known as a place where shooters act freely,” he added.

The recent wave of attacks by militants on oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta has put pressure on the Nigerian army which is also focusing on the fight against Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria.