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The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has arrested nine individuals involved in oil theft at an illegal refinery located in a forested area on the boundary between Rivers and Abia States.
This was disclosed by the NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.
This operation followed an NSCDC discovery of another illegal refining site on Saturday with over 100,000 litres of stolen crude oil in Adobi settlement, Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State.
According to Afolabi, the apprehended suspects, aged between 20 and 53 years, were allegedly caught in the act of refining stolen crude oil extracted from a vandalized oil wellhead.
According to Afolabi, the site also housed a local refinery under construction, designed to produce 60,000 litres of crude oil at a time.
“We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil wellhead.
The illegal site featured extensive infrastructure, including large hoses and galvanised metal pipes used to transfer stolen crude oil across various processing channels.
The suspects include Oghene Wede (32), 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).
“Exhibits recovered are RWD 5.0 GFE-6500 power generating set, two yellow colour pumping machines, metal and plastic buckets, cutlasses, saw, mats, welding Machine, galvanized metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, automotive gas oil illegally processed in cooking ovens,” Afolabi added.
He stated that interrogation of the suspects was ongoing, and they will be charged in court upon completion of the investigation.