The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) says it has uncovered a syndicate and arrested three suspects involved in adulteration of petroleum products.
Mrs Christiana Abiakam-Omanu, the Commandant of NSCDC in Bayelsa, made the disclosure on Wednesday while parading the suspects before newsmen at NSCDC Headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa capital.
Abiakam-Omanu said that her command, on a tip-off, caught a petroleum product delivery truck conveying products from Calabar depot which stopped at designated spots at Elele on the East-West Road where illegally refined products were being filled into the truck.
She said that three suspects and a 40,000 litres capacity truck laden with suspected adulterated product were impounded at the illegal loading point at Elele by her command.
According to her, the operation is sequel to credible intelligence which operatives of the command acted upon to arrest the suspects who were mixing legally refined products with illegally refined products to be supplied to filling stations.
“Our efforts at sanitising the oil sector have been ongoing and yielding results; we arrested these three young men who have been sabotaging our efforts to check oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining of petroleum products.
“On March 17, we arrested the suspects at Elele on the East-West Road and we are working to get to the root.
“Our legal team is working on the matter, and we have invited the Department of Petroleum Resources to conduct an analysis on the exhibit and once we are done with investigations, we go to the prosecution phase.
“We have secured more than 30 convictions from the beginning of this year till date and the convicts are serving their jail terms while the products impounded are forfeited to the Federal Government.
“The NSCDC Command in Bayelsa is poised to fight oil theft and vandalism on oil assets and we implore oil communities to assist us with timely information to curtail all forms of criminality,” Abaikam-Omanu said. (NAN)
