No fewer than 108 suspects are being remanded at different correctional centers in the Niger Delta and Abuja over their alleged involvement in pipeline vandalism.
Head of investigation team of the Special Prosecution Task Force (SPT) of the federal government on the hydrocarbon sector, CSP Omar Sini disclosed this to newsmen while speaking on the task force’s collaboration with the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited in securing oil assets.
Sini stated that the special task force had secured two convictions with 38 active cases at the trial level and others at the investigation level.
He also spoke on how the task force raided two illegal refining sites in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, attributing the success of the operation to the intelligence provided by the surveillance team of the PINL.
It was gathered that one of the sites was operating under the cover of a logistics company, Emekus Nigeria Limited, while the other is a large piggery used for active illegal refining of millions of litres of stolen petroleum products, with equipment of the illegal business found on the site.
However, while Emekus Nigeria Limited is located at the Umuebule axis of Oyigbo, the piggery is located at a remote axis, east of the bank of the Imo River, where bags of stolen crude await refining, three tanks of different capacities and a 33,000-litre capacity truck, among others, were confiscated by the surveillance company.
Sini revealed that three suspects, a woman and two other accomplices, were arrested at Emekus Nigeria Limited and would be prosecuted immediately after investigations are concluded.
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He also confirmed that 60,000 liters of stolen products were contained in sacks inside a section of the premises of Emekus Nigeria Limited.
Also throwing light on the operation, Andrew Ebikeme of PINL explained how the discovery was made: “This is an illegal refining site with products from stolen crude.
“The area was discovered using intelligence information provided by PINL community-based surveillance guards.
“We came here, and what we saw was mind-boggling. As you can see, this is supposed to be a logistics base, but behind it we have this illegal activity going on. Right now, this has been confiscated by the special prosecution team”.
He stated that to be able to make the discovery, PINL had maintained a healthy and cordial working relationship with the task force and all other stakeholders on the protection of the nation’s oil assets.
