The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos Command, has confirmed the arrest of five suspected oil thieves for perpetrating the crime in the state.
The state Commander, Eweka Okoro, while parading the suspects on Monday, said they were arrested on Friday while reportedly moving adulterated AGO from Niger-Delta into the state.
Okoro said, “Five suspects and four trucks were arrested late Friday night. These suspects were with suspected adulterated AGO which was just brought into the state. They normally use the Lekki axis instead of the usual Berger axis in order to evade the eagle eye of the security.
“On Friday evening, my men were on ground laying siege to intercept them from carrying out their usual criminal activities. We arrested four trucks and five suspects. They have all pleaded guilty. We have taken the content of the trucks for test analysis.
“This particular arrest is disheartening because they thought they were smart by passing through an unauthorised route. But our men were equally relevant to the job expected of us. We discovered there is a chain of command. We have traced and brought two other suspects. We will allow the law to take its course as soon as we obtain necessary facts from them.”
The NSCDC, Akwa Ibom Command, also confirmed the arrest of three suspected smugglers and seized five trucks loaded with 225,000 litres of adulterated Automotive Gas Oil in the state.
The state Commandant, NSCDC, Sulieman Mafara, while interacting with newsmen in Uyo on Monday, said the suspects were arrested based on intelligence and surveillance by operatives of the Anti-Vandals unit of the command on September 9, along Port Harcourt Bridge by East-West expressway.
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