The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Akwa Ibom State Command have busted a syndicate of suspected oil thieves and illegal miners and apprehended four suspects including two oil thieves and two illegal miners.
Mr Eluyemi Eluwade, the NSCDC commandant, who addressed journalists in Exhibits‘ Yard of the Command in Uyo, the state capital, said 4,500 litres of adulterated Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), diesel, were seized from the oil thieves.
He said that the adulterated AGO stored in cellophane bags were concealed with palm kernel shells to beat security checks.
The commandant said that two suspects were arrested on Wednesday, March 20, in connection with their involvement in illegal mining and other unwholesome practices in the sector.
He said, “on March 17, operatives of the Anti-Vandal Squad (AVS) along Calabar-Itu highway, apprehended two suspects conveying 100 cellophane bags of suspected adulterated AGO.
”The product was being conveyed in an open bucket articulated vehicle with Registration Number, FGE 680 ZS.”
Eluwade further said that on March 19, another open bucket articulated vehicle with Registration Number, BB 825 XX loaded with no fewer than 80 cellophane bags of AGO was impounded, and the suspect apprehended.
The commandant said that the recent breakthrough was as a result of the Command’s commitment to crack down on oil thieves and other illegal activities in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
“We have intensified operations against vandals in all parts of the state,” he assured, even as he condemned the negative impacts of adulterated and substandard petroleum products on vehicles, and restated the Command’s readiness to sustain its onslaught against the perpetrators.
He assured that the suspects would be arraigned in court as soon as investigations were concluded in order to serve as a deterrent to others.
