By Ken Afor
Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have reportedly apprehended nine individuals over their alleged involvement in oil theft at an illegal refinery site in a forest area along the border between Rivers and Abia States.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Mr Babawale Afolabi, on Monday.
The arrests followed the NSCDC’s recent dismantling of an illegal refining site where over 100,000 liters of stolen crude oil were reportedly discovered in the Adobi settlement within the Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State on Saturday.
According to Afolabi, the suspects, aged between 20 and 53 years old, were allegedly caught in the act of refining stolen crude oil extracted from a vandalized oil wellhead.
Those apprehended in connection with the alleged activities include Oghene Wede (32 years old), Moses James (25), Chidi Nwosu (53), Samuel John (24), Emmanuel Paul (20), Oghenevo Nwebi (43), Martina Whinnypeter (38), Nwabuchi Nwogu (41), and David Okere (20).
He added that the site also contained a local refinery that was under construction, intended to produce 60,000 liters of crude oil at a time.
“We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalized oil wellhead.
“We also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 liters of crude at once,” he added.
The NSCDC spokesman further disclosed that the site housed an elaborate setup, with heavy-duty hoses and galvanized metal piping used to illicitly transport crude oil through multiple processing stages.
“Exhibits recovered include RWD 5.0 GFE-6500 power generating set, two yellow color pumping machines, metal and plastic buckets, cutlasses, saws, mats, welding machines, galvanized metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, and illegally processed automotive gas oil in cooking ovens,” Afolabi added.
He maintained that the interrogation of the suspects was still in progress and that they would be charged to court once investigation is concluded.
