From Molly Kilete, Abuja
A 10-man robbery gang who specializes in hijacking petroleum tankers, tie their drivers and conductors before selling the products to black marketers have landed in the custody of men of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team(IRT).
The group all natives of Kogi State and live in Lokoja, usually carry out their operation along the Jebba/Mokwa axis in Niger State.
The leader of the group, Mohammed Yusuf, 40, said they chose the Jebba/Mokwa axis for their operations because of the bad road that forces the tanker drivers to drive at very slow pace.
The father of four who is into oil and gas and has a shop at Kotonkarfe, said that they usually divide themselves into two groups during such operations, adding that they have hijacked a number of trucks and made huge sums of money before they were apprehended by the team from IRT, who had been on their trail for sometime.
Yusuf said that the group operate with two private vehicles and drive behind petroleum tankers as soon as the sight one. He said that one group would drive ahead of the tanker and lay ambush at a particular spot, while the second group would drive behind until they get to the bad spot. At this point he said the driver would automatically slow down because of the bad spot while one of their gang members would climb the tanker from behind without the driver knowing and discinnect the horse that supplies fuels to the engine of the vehicle. When this is done, he said the tanker would stop suddenly and by the time the driver and the conductor come out to see what may have gone wrong with the vehicle, the other group in the bush would jump out of their hiding, sieze the driver, conductor, tie them up and drive the truck to the nearest black market dealer and sell the product to them.
He said that they sometimes sell the product for between N5-6million depending on the number of litres in the tanker.
Yusuf, who said he has been in the business for over 10 years now, said that he used the proceed from the stolen crude to put into his business.
In this interview, the suspect opened up, pleading that if he is allowed to go free he would never engage in criminal activities again.
Hear him: “My name is Mohammed Yusuf. I am from Kotonkarfe in Kogi State. I am 40 years old. I am a businessman and I deal in oil. I am married with five children. I get my oil from depot in Suleja and sometimes I get my oil by hijacking petroleum tankers. We are a 10-member robbery gang and I am the leader of the gang and we have been in this business for a very long time now.
“The way we operate is that we go to Niger State because there you have very bad road and this usually forces most drivers to move very slowly each time they get to such spots. We know all these bad spots so what we do is that we divide ourselves into two groups and we operate in two vehicles. We park somewhere close a village and when we see these tankers coming, the first group will move in advance and get to the exact spot where we want to to operate while me and the other group will drive behind the tanker without the driver knowing what is about to happen.
“When we get to the bad spot, the driver will automatically reduce his speed and at this point, one of us would come down from our vehicle and climb the truck from behind and disconnect the fuel supply to the engine of the tanker which will eventually force the tanker to stop. “The driver not knowing what caused the vehicle to stop would then come out to find out what happened and my other group in the bush will surround them, tie them up and keep them in the bush and some of us would be stationed there to watch them so they don’t escape. At this point, I will come out of our operational vehicle and mount the steering and drive the tanker to Tunga village and other places where we have black marketers and sell the product to them. “Sometimes, they pay cash, sometimes they ask us to come the next day and collect the payment. After successfully dispensing the product, we abadon the truck and release the driver and his conductor. We usually operate with sticks, we don’t have guns yet.
“The last tanker that we hijacked had 45,000, litres of product and we sold it for N5.5million. We had not even divided the money, we are still discharging the product before the police swooped on us and arrested us. “Two of our members escaped while eight of us were arrested. After hijacking the truck, we didn’t know that the police team saw and followed us. It was while we were dispensing the product that they came out from their hiding place and arrested us. “After arresting us, they called the owner of the truck on the phone and they took us to the station where the owner came to pick his truck and the product.”
On how much he has made since he started the business,Yusuf, said he could not say as the business was a game of luck.
“Sometimes you go and succeed and at other times you go and you will not suceee like this one that they arrested us if we had succeeded we would not have been in police custody, we would have probably be going for another one,” he said.
On why he went into the illegal business after claiming to be a business man that deals in oil and gas and gets his product from Suleja Depot,the suspect said: “It is the work of devil that pushed me to do this bad business and if I get out of this one I will never hijack petroleum tankers again.
“I feel bad for being in this mess and my wife and children do not know that I am into hijacking of petroleum tankers.”