The gun battle is said to have taken place during an attempted hijacking of the St Kitts and Nevis-flagged tanker Notre.
Pirates took control of the ship on 15 August, but an emergency signal was sent to the navy and several ships were deployed to recover the vessel, reports Reuters.
The Nigerian navy eventually caught up with the vessel and forced it into Nigerian waters but while negotiating the ship’s release, the pirates tried to escape on a speed boat.
“The gun battle lasted for about 30 minutes after which they were overpowered,” rear admiral Sidi-Ali Hassan told reporters.
“On taking over the speed boat, four of the militants were alive and unhurt while the rest of the pirates were killed in the crossfire.”
The crew of the Notre, which was carrying a cargo of 17,000t of gasoline, were reportedly all rescued unharmed.
Butanalysts at UK-based security consultants AKE Maritime said coordinated armedconfrontations of this nature are likely to remain the exception.
“Themajority of tanker hijackings are carried out by organised groups who aregenerally able to escape from hijacked vessels further from the coast withlittle in the way of naval interruption.”
“Regional coastguards and navies remain severely limited and lack the capacity to provide reliablecoastal law enforcement,” it added.
