Men of Operation Delta Safe, OPDS, have arrested three suspected crude oil thieves and seized a vessel and two tankers used in carrying out illegal activities in Rivers State.
Nigeriacrime.com gathered that OPDS operatives seized the vessel used by oil thieves to store their products at the moment in Port Harcourt and arrested one suspect from the vessel, on Wednesday while two tankers used in transporting illegally gotten petroleum products and two suspects were nabbed last week.
The suspect arrested from the vessel, Paul Obriku, who hails from Cross Rivers State, confessed that the oil thieves who use the vessel for their operations bring crude into the vessel with GeePee tanks and that he is paid N50,000 to secure the said vessel.
Obriku maintained that he was civilian security personnel taking charge of the vessel, claiming that he did not know that the petroleum products loaded in the facility were stolen.
He said: “I am working in this vessel as security since there are no crew and the vessel is not working. I am here to secure the vessel for now. I know they used to bring crude oil to this place, but I do not know if it is illegal or not. They used to bring the products with Geepee tanks through fiber boats.
“There are people that are above me that authorize them to bring the products here. Sometimes I will be inside and they will be operating. I am being paid N50 thousand a month and I do not know it is an illegal vessel.
“I am only here to secure the boats. The people do bring products morning afternoon and night. There are two directors their names are Solo and Jasper. Other people are working here, but they are not always here.”
However, the OPDS Commander, Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, said the seizures were made during covert operations based on credible intelligence over illegalities involving the vessels.
Ferreira, who was represented by the Marine Component Commander of OPDS, Commodore Adedokun Siyanbade, said the operation was conducted, Tuesday, and that the operation led to the arrest of MV Cecelia Imo, a vessel that ought to be a service boat but has been converted to a storage tank for illegally refined products suspected to be AGO.
He said: “The vessel has a capacity of 350,000 litres, even the water tank has been converted into a fuel storage tank for this illegal product and the vessel hasn’t been to sea for the past 2 years. It was expected to be under maintenance whereby illegal refiners bring their products for storage and sales.
“The vessel has been arrested and necessary procedures will be taken in line with extant regulations binding on OPDS operations.”
Ferreira noted that a suspect was arrested from the vessel, adding that there was no captain as the vessel had not been in its original use.
He said: “In Rivers State last Monday two tankers were also arrested with about 33,000 litres of crude oil by joint sector 3 of OPDS, made up of land component and marine component. They were caught siphoning oil from a dugout pit.
“For this vessel and those tankers, necessary action will be taken in line with extant regulations against them.
“On this vessel, a suspect was arrested and the engineer on board the vessel is still at large. Invariably the vessel has no captain since it has not been at sea for a long time, Those on board are only the engineers and the deckhands, but we were only able to arrest the deckhands that were found on board late yesterday evening.