Abuja: Security forces in Nigeria has recovered bodies of 11 out of the 12 policemen, who were killed last Friday in the country`s oil rich Niger delta region.
Combined team of soldiers drawn from the Joint Task Force (JTF) and operatives of the Nigeria Police on Wednesday recovered the "burnt and decomposed" bodies of the slain policemen along the creeks of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
The policemen were in the region to give cover to an ex-militant, who was holding funeral for a dead relative, when they were ambushed and killed in the creeks of Bayelsa state by unknown gunmen.
Police had said that the officers boat developed some faults before they were attacked in Azazuma village.
A militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), claimed responsibility for the attack.
MEND, whose leader Henry Okah was sentenced to 24 years in prison last month for masterminding bomb attacks in the capital city of Abuja in 2010, had warned of continued hostilities.
They accused Nigerian government of having offered evidence that led to Okah`s sentencing.
A spokesman for the Nigerian police in Bayelsa state, Alex Akhigbe, confirmed the recovery of the bodies, adding that one was yet to be recovered.
The recovered corpses were taken to the state capital, Yenogoa, and deposited in a morgue.
MEND is one of the several groups that have carried out attacks in the Niger Delta, claiming the region needs to control its oil resources.
PTI
