Illegal Bunkering: 2 NSCDC Personnel, 5 Others Arrested

Seven persons, including two personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), have been arrested by the Nigerian Army and NSCDC, working with Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), for allegedly providing cover for illegal oil bunkerers in Rivers State.

The arrested followed PINL’s uncovering of a logistics company at Eleme, Rivers State, being used as camouflage for illegal bunkerers on the 28-inches Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) along the Ebubu New Road by Eleme Trailer Park, adjourning to the East-West Road.

The two arrested NSCDC personnel were deployed to the logistics company, while the five other senior key staff members of the firm are currently assisting security agencies in their investigations.

Also arrested were two trailer trucks with a capacity of 45,000 litres each and specially constructed for the operation and caught inside the company, loading crude from a valve less than 200 meters away.

Conducting journalists around the scene of the illegal bunkering activity, PINL’s senior manager of security and Government, Dr Patrick Onogwu, said the arrest was made possible by PINL surveillance personnel who gave credible intelligence about crude oil thieves operating along that axis.

Onogwu said: “Based on the information, closer security attention was paid to the area, which eventually led to the bursting of the illegal operations going on in the company. The company’s primary business is the processing and export of precious stones, including quartz, iron and glass sand, to China through the Onne port.

“The oil thieves were capitalising on the proximity to the company of a valve on the TNP, less than two hundred meters from the logistics company. So they tapped the valve and connected a hose, which they passed through a hole in the company fence into the main compound to load the crude.

“They just connected a 9-inch hose from which they load their trucks, usually concealed in front of the company’s weighing bridge. It is an operation that can only be detected by careful monitoring by security agencies, considering the busy activities of the company and the intelligent way the illegal bunkers managed to conceal their operations.

“Five days ago, we got intel that they loaded three trucks from this compound. The trucks they loaded used 40-foot containers and built a tank right inside the container as a disguise. Once you see a container like that, you think it carries normal products. And they use this customs seal to seal the truck, and then transport it to Akwa-Ibom State.”