The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps has arrested 19 suspects for alleged involvement in illegal oil bunkering in Rivers State.
Several exhibits from the illicit trade were also seized from the suspects as the NSCDC’s offensive against crude oil theft continues.
The NSCDC also confirmed that it has arrested 69 suspects in Rivers State for illegal Oil Bunkering since January 2022.
This current group of suspects were intercepted in different parts of the State for various roles in the oil bunkering supply chain.
Amongst them are some 20, 19 and 16-year old suspects.
The NSCDC says it is worried that despite the continuous sensitization and ongoing war against vandalism and economic sabotage, many young people still in their productive years have insisted on living a life a crime.
In the separate operations that led to their arrests, operatives of the anti-vandal unit also seized 28,000 liters of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil also known as diesel.
Some of them were intercepted while conveying the products in drums using wooden boats along the waterways.
But others were more daring in trying to evade detection while transporting their goods with private vehicles.
In Port Harcourt the conversion of residential buildings to illegal dumpsites for petroleum products is also on the increase.
The NSCDC sealed up two of such compounds one of which had 3500 liters of diesel concealed in an underground tank.
The warning from the command remains the same, desist from crude oil theft or face the consequences.
