The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Rivers State Command, said it has arrested three suspects with one large wooden boat and two vehicles laden with 24,000 litres of illegally refined petroleum products.
Parading the suspects at the Ogbogoro Exhibit Jetty at the weekend, the State Commandant, Michael Ogar, said the success was recorded by the Antivandal Unit of the command.
He said, “The products were carefully arranged in the wooden boat such that a layman would assume it as a passenger boat. But, based on sustained intelligence, the suspects, William Chen (29) male and Emmanuel Uriah (27) male, were tactically double-crossed and arrested by our marine team along Isaka creek off the new Calabar River axis in Rivers State.”
He further disclosed that the land patrol team arrested a suspect, Anayo Obasi, aged 38 years, for illegal dealings in petroleum products.
The suspect was apprehended with a yellow and lemon-coloured mini bus with registration number ABIA BND 82 ZM, laden with about 1,500 litres of illegally refined automotive gas oil (AGO) concealed in cellophane.
Ogar added that another Toyota Camry Car with number plate LAGOS GN 76 LND laden with about 1,500 litres of illegally refined automotive gas oil (AGO) was impounded at Abonnema Wharf by UTC junction.
The commandant warned that the NSCDC is ready to stop those sabotaging the nation’s economy through oil theft.
“We are fully equipped and ready to fight the menace of oil theft, vandalism of oil pipelines and all acts of illegal dealings in petroleum products in Rivers State,” Ogar said.
“The Command under my watch will not accept indiscipline, compromise and connivance of officers with illegal oil dealers because any officer caught aiding and abetting illegal bunkerers would be rid of all his uniforms and accoutrements and treated like a criminal,” he added.
The Rivers NSCDC boss said the suspects would be charged to court soon and called on the public to provide the command with credible and actionable intelligence that would help them clamp down on oil thieves in the state.
