The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC, operatives in Rivers State have busted an illegal bunkering site hidden in the forest.
The Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad, CG’SIS, reported that the unlawful structures were found in Umuedeokwara Community, Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The head of the squad, Deputy Commandant, Apollos Dandaura, mentioned that they acted based on continuous intelligence indicating the presence of a criminal group running an illicit refinery at the location.
“Like we always reiterate that our operations are intelligence-based and we value every piece of information and preserve the integrity of our informants; we swung into action, combed the entire forest and discovered where the suspects were refining crude oil locally after storage in large trampoline reservoirs and further packaged them in cellophane bags and sacks.
“These unscrupulous saboteurs connected fabricated and galvanized metallic pipes to the trunk lines of multinational oil pipeline installations with inserted valves.
“The suspects, however, took to their heels through the creeks due to the terrain upon sighting our men”, Dandaura explained.
He further revealed that his team recovered from the suspects about 20,000 litres of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) stored in cellophane bags, large quantities of siphoned crude oil stored in tarpaulin reservoirs, different sizes of aluminium and plastic buckets, galvanized metallic Fabricated pipes, heavy-duty industrial hoses and items of clothing belonging to the suspects.
Dandaura noted that economic saboteurs would be ruthlessly dealt with according to the law.
