By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested nine suspected oil thieves at an illegal oil refinery in a forest boundary between Rivers and Abia States.
This is according to a statement by the NSCDC Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Babawale Afolabi, on Monday in Abuja.
Mr Afolabi said that based on the agency’s dedication to wage war against illegal bunkering, the Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad (CGsSIS) laid intelligence surveillance at the site, which aided in the successful arrest.
“We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil wellhead.
“We also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once.
“Visibly at the massive illegal bunkering, we noticed large hoses and galvanised metal pipes laid to transfer stolen crude oil across the processing channels,” he said.
According to him, the suspects arrested are Mr Oghene Wede (M) 32 years, Mr Moses James (M) 25 years, Mr Chidi Nwosu (M), 53 years old; and Mr Samuel John (M), 24 years old.
Others are Mr Emmanuel Paul (M) 20 years, Mr Oghenevo Nwebi (M) 43 years, Mrs Martina Whinnypeter (F) 38 years, Mr Nwabuchi Nwogu (M) 41 years and Mr David Okere (M) 20 years.
The spokesperson said that interrogation of the suspects and further investigation have commenced, adding that the suspects would, after that, be charged in court for prosecution.
He said the massive site contained over 15 modular ovens with four fabricated reservoirs and 30 pits dug out to store processed automotive gas oil (AGO) known as diesel.
“Exhibits recovered are RWD 5.0 GFE-6500 power generating set, two yellow colour pumping machines, metal and plastic buckets, cutlasses, saw, mats, welding machine, galvanised metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, automotive gas oil (AGO) illegally processed in cooking ovens,” Mr Afolabi revealed in the statement.
Modupe Gbadeyanka