Nigerian Navy Arrests 50 Pipeline Vandals, Recovers 6,000 Gallons of Stolen Crude

Chiemelie Ezeobi

The Western Naval Command (WNC) of the Nigerian Navy (NN) has arrested no fewer than 50 suspected pipeline vandals in an ongoing major operation at Majidun, Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

This is in addition to their recovery of about 6,000 gallons of stolen products siphoned from several vandalised Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines.

The naval taskforce had discovered the stolen  products stored in 25 and 50 litre kegs, which were covered with leaves and hidden in the belly of  the swamp as well as in some houses of the residents living in the area.

The products, suspected to be Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also called petrol, which were carted away to the jetty of the WNC, Apapa, in 10 long trucks were estimated to be worth over N30million.

Code-named Operation Awatse, an Hausa word for 'scatter', the ongoing operation saw military personnel drawn from the NN and the Nigerian Army (NA), storm the riverine community in a bid to sanitise it and arrest the prolonged economic sabotage that had been going on around the community.

Addressing newsmen afterwards, the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade said the suspects were in custody but would not be paraded so as not to jeopardise investigations.

He said the ongoing raid was in tandem with the determination of the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin's zero  to halt illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism.

He said, "The operation was planned sequel to directives by the CNS last week. It has yielded successes so far and many arrests have been made.

"Also, products and wooden boats popularly called Cotonou boats were intercepted and destroyed by our personnel.

“The products would be handed over to the PPMC and the arrested suspects would also be handed over to concerned authorities that would prosecute them.

"At the end of the operation, the Nigerian Navy may consider establishing a Naval base so that we can sustain the gains recorded.

"I want to warn the perpetrators to seek legitimate employment instead of living on illegalities. I must emphasise that the CNS has zero tolerance to any form of illegalities within the maritime space.

"I would want to appeal to the general public to provide useful information that would help us sustain this fight. We really need cooperation from members of the public. There is need for residents around Majidun, Arepo and Ogolonto to provide us with information."

On the allegation that some of the oil thieves have the support of some traditional rulers in the area and some officials of the NNPC, Alade said they were not aware of that, adding that ongoing intelligence gathering would reveal the brains behind the ignoble act.

The petroleum products were afterwards handed over to the NNPC Area manager in charge of Mosinmi Depot, Mr. Remi Eluyefa by the commander of operation, Commodore Tekumo Okoli, who also doubles as the Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Beecroft.

Eluyefa while fielding questions from journalists, commended the navy for the major breakthrough it recorded in helping them tackle the huge economic sabotage and loss of products.

He said, "We are not security personnel so we have  always depended on security agencies to provide security on their pipelines. The security of the pipelines is not the work of NNPC.

"We depend on security agencies to provide us with security because most of us are engineers who do not know much about security. We are glad that the navy has delivered", he said.
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