In Rivers State, operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have apprehended nine individuals involved in oil theft and dismantled three bunkering sites. These actions are part of the ongoing efforts to eliminate economic saboteurs from the oil sector.
According to information from the Headquarters of the Corps in Abuja, the feat was achieved by NSCDC Commandant-General ‘s Special Intelligence Squad.
The oil thieves were also involved in pipeline vandalism and illegal operations of local refineries.
The nine suspects, according to the Public Relations Officer of the Service, Babawale Afolabi, were arrested in a thick forest at Ommuma/Owaza forest- a boundary between Rivers and Abia States.
He said the Commander of the Squad, Appolos Dandaura ensured that a strategic surveillance system was placed on the crime scenes as the Squad resolved to bring to an end the activities of the criminals.
“Based on sustained intelligence we placed strategic surveillance on the crime scenes and apprehended 9 suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalized Oil Well Head, we also discovered an on-going construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once”.
“While on operational tour across the terrain, we uncovered about 3 well constructed illegal local refineries where crude is being siphoned through the vandalized Well Head with large hoses connected to transmit crude to Cooking ovens and later channelled to reservoirs after processing; thereafter loading is finally done “, Afolabi said in a statement.
He added that the site of the bunkering occupied over 15 Modular ovens with 4 fabricated reservoirs and 30 pits dug out to store processed AGO.
He gave the names of suspects arrested as Oghene Wede (M) 32years, Moses James (M) 25 years, Chidi Nwosu (M) 53 years, Samuel John (M) 24 years, Emmanuel Paul (M) 20 years, Oghenevo Nwebi (M) 43 years, Martina Whinnypeter (F) 38 Years, Nwabuchi Nwogu (M) 41 years and David Okere (M) 20 years”.
He said some exhibits recovered during the operations are: RWD 5.0 GFE-6500 Power Generating Set, 2 Yellow Colour Pumping Machines, Metal and Plastic buckets, Cutlasses, Saw, Mats, Welding Machine, Galvanized metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, Head flashlights, some Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) illegally processed in cooking ovens.
