Pirates killed four policemen and kidnapped six workers of a local oil company last Friday.

Insecurity is gradually returning to the oil-rich Delta region in Nigeria as pirates in a speed boat hijacked a police gunboat, killed four policemen and kidnapped six workers of a local oil company on Friday, October 24, 2014, The Associated Press  reported.

Joint Task Force spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka said the gunboat and police were escorting a barge-load of oil for the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, which was not attacked.  The task force is jointly deployed by the Police and military in the area to ensure security and peace. The attack happened on the Barbara River in southern Bayelsa State, Anka said and specified that it was in the Nembe Creek. The day before the attack, Bayelsa Police command reported that six Nigerians working for Agip had been kidnapped by pirates. Oil workers usually are held for ransom and released unharmed. Reports say piracy in Nigeria is aimed at oil theft and kidnapping for ransom and cost the nation some $131 million in the past three years, according to the Contemporary Maritime Piracy Database.

In 2013, Nigerian pirates and armed robbers were blamed for 31 of 51 attacks in the Delta  region, including in waters far from home off Gabon, Ivory Coast and Togo, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Still in the southern part of Nigeria, gunmen on the same October 24 Gunmen attacked the vehicles of a German worker and sub-contractor for the Julius Berger Nigeria construction company in southwest Nigeria's Ogun State, shooting one dead and kidnapping the other, a senior security source said on Monday, Reuters reported. The incident occurred as the two Germans were heading to the Ogbere quarry, west of Lagos in Ogun State where they work for Julius Berger Nigeria. Ogun State Police were not immediately available to comment but Julius Berger confirmed the incident.