NEW ILLEGAL REFINING SITES FOUND IN RIVERS BY NSCDC; SUSPECTS ARRESTED

Babatunji Wusu –

Nine people have been taken into custody by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), who are suspected of stealing oil from Rivers State.
This was stated in a news statement released in Abuja on Monday by Babawale Afolabi, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the NSCDC.
According to the announcement, the people were apprehended at an unlicensed refinery in a forested area along the boundary between the states of Rivers and Abia.

He urged the people of Kaduna and the Niger States to give the Nigerian Army and other security services timely, useful intelligence so they can respond quickly.

Afolabi said: “We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil wellhead.

“We also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once.

“Visibly at the massive illegal bunkering, we noticed large hoses and galvanised metal pipes laid to transfer stolen crude across the processing channels.”

He disclosed the ages of the suspects who had been taken into custody: Oghene Wede (M), 32; Moses James (M), 25; Chidi Nwosu (M), 53; and Samuel John (M), 24.

The remaining individuals are 20-year-old Emmanuel Paul (M), 43-year-old Oghenevo Nwebi (M), 38-year-old Martina WhinnyPeter (F), 41-year-old Nwabuchi Nwogu (M), and 20-year-old David Okere (M).

He added that the accused would be charged in court after the inquiry got underway.

Afolabi added that the large site had thirty excavated trenches for the storage of processed AGO, four manufactured reservoirs, and more than fifteen modular ovens.