Navy recovers 33,000-litre fuel from NNPC pipelines stolen by vandals
- Nigerian Navy operatives raided villages on Atlas Cove Island area of Lagos state
- The villages raided are Ilado-Odo, Idi Mangoro, Ilashe Corner Loss and Sarkin Juju Point
- The operatives said they recovered 1,330 jerrycans (about 33,250 litres) of fuel allegedly stolen from the pipelines of the NNPC
Operatives of the Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft in Apapa, Lagos, have raided villages on Atlas Cove Island of the state, recovering 1,330 jerrycans (about 33,250 litres) of fuel allegedly stolen from the pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Punch reports.
The villages raided are Ilado-Odo, Idi Mangoro, Ilashe Corner Loss and Sarkin Juju Point.
Legit.ng gathered that the security of the pipelines was contracted to a security firm, Top Line Security Limited.
It was learnt that the suspected vandals attached valves on the broken parts of the pipelines, which they regulated to steal fuel as it was pumped by the corporation.
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The Commander, NNS Beecroft, Rear Admiral Maurice Eno, said his men went to the areas on surveillance after getting an intelligence report.
He said: “The base monitored the activities around the areas for about three weeks and on December 14, 2017, at 8.10am, a detachment of personnel from the NNS Beecroft raided the locations and discovered a storage facility with 1,500 jerrycans, out of which 1,330 contained product suspected to be Premium Motor Spirit believed to have been siphoned from the NNPC pipelines on the Island.”
The commander said that nobody was arrested but noted that the recovered product had been taken to their base.
He said the product would soon be handed over to the NNPC.
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However, a resident of the area, Nana Feyisetan, who claimed to have been living in Ilado-Odo since 2014, said she was not aware of the activities of the vandals.
She said: “I was born in Ghana. I relocated to this village in 2014. I don’t know that some people have been vandalising pipelines here. I am aware that the OPC (Oodua Peoples Congress) members come for guard duty every night.”
Meanwhile, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) refuted the claim that its members were involved in the pipeline security on the Island.
The OPC director of publicity, Yinka Oguntimehin, in a statement on Sunday, December 2017, said the group had not been involved in any pipeline security since June 15, 2015.
He further added that the OPC had no link with Top Line Security Limited.
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Eket field, said it had suspended six marketers in Akwa Ibom for diverting petroleum products.
The DRP Operations Controller in Akwa Ibom, Tamunoiminabo Sundaye, disclosed this on Sunday, December 17.
Sundaye said that the marketers lifted 180,000 litres of petrol from NNPC Calabar depot to an unknown destination.
He said that when the department went to their various filling stations on a check, the products were not found in their tanks.
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Source: Legit.ng
