By Chioma Okezie-Okeh

Operatives of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)  have uncovered an illegal petroleum products storage site located at Agbor junction, along Benin-Asaba Express Road, Edo State.

According to sources at the department, the discovery was made by the Commandant General’s, Special Intelligence Squad (SIS) who acted on a tip off and arrested two suspects at the site.

At the site, it was also discovered that the vandals who are believed to have stolen the petroleum products were also illegally refining and selling truckloads of it to the public.

Some of the exhibits recovered were over 300,000 litres of adulterated AGO (Automotive Gas Oil), three pumping machines, two fully loaded surface tanks, three trucks loaded with petrol and seven big generators.  

The illegal dump site and all the recovered exhibits were handed over to the Commandant, NSCDC, Edo State Command, for further investigation and prosecution.

In a related development, the operatives arrested five suspected vandals with a truck load of petroleum products at Ogege Road along Benin Ore Expressway. The suspects identified as Goodluck China, Fidelis Ogwuemiti, Philip Olawale, Roland Ogwu and Onime Daniel led the operatives to a dump site at Ogba community along Benin -Auchi Express road in Edo.

Some of the exhibits recovered were two fully loaded surface tanks, two empty tanks, 17 seven-thousand-litre drums filled with engine oil, a Hilux van and two saloon cars.  

The operatives also impounded three trucks used in conveying about 135,000 litres of adulterated petrol at Ofosu and Ore junction along Ondo-Lagos Expressway.

Eight suspects were arrested and they presented forged waybill in an attempt to legalise the movement of those petroleum products meant to be sold in Lagos.

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The operatives, in another development, arrested Abdullahi Laru Abubakar and Danlami Ahmadu who were alleged to be responsible for the recent attack on farmers in Akiri area, Awe in Nasarawa State.

One of their latest victims, Sule Yamusa alleged that he lost more than 50 cows during the raid.

The suspects told the operatives that they were part of a gang of cattle rustlers in the area and some of the cows that were given to them were sold to one Shagari in Plateau State.

According to Ahmadu, his share was used to marry a third wife. He said: “I am 40 and a farmer. Life is difficult these days and some of us survive through cattle rustling. We are so many and our gang leaders are based in the thick forest. I got N850,000 after selling my own share. I used the money to marry Zainab as my third wife.”

The CG’s special squad also arrested 25-year-old Tukur Muhammed, an indigene of Tsafe area in Zamfara State who confessed that he is an informant to bandits and also part of a cattle rustling syndicate in the state.

He claimed to be the one who provided most of the information needed by bandits around Abaji in Nasarawa State and its environs. One of such victims was one Mallam Ibrahim who allegedly paid N10 million before he was released.

His words: “I am married with two kids. My parents are farmers and I was forced to become independent at the age of 20 when I got married. My friends introduced me to cattle rustling business and I made a lot of money. Normally every serious cattle farmer owns an AK-47. I normally use my own whenever we are going to the bush to steal. It is needed to fight rustlers. The leaders in the bush are also kidnappers and they advised some of us who are in town to provide information about rich people in the area. I was given N1 million after the kidnap of Mallam Ibrahim. Other gang members who escaped are Nasiru, Lambu, Jamilu and Boje.”

 Confirming the breakthrough, the CG, Ahmed Abubakar Audi reaffirmed he was resolute in ensuring that the country’s critical national assets are protected and vandalism is stamped out of the country or reduced drastically.

To achieve this, he recently deployed a special tactical squad from his office called Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad (SIS) and mandated them to ensure that there should no longer be any hiding place for criminal elements nationwide and to also curtail any observed excesses of officers and men of the corps.