THEY all understand the winding creeks and waterways of the Niger Delta. Monday Friday, Jeremaiah Festus, Alabwe Asina, Ibianga Owei and Secondi Africanus were born and bred in the region gave. This gave them that edge, which encouraged them to tap into the often unguarded pipelines that pass through thousands of kilometres of creeks and waterways.
But their vast knowledge of the region failed them and 41 others about a week ago when they were arrested. Last Monday, the Joint Task Force (JTF) for the Niger Delta announced their arrest.
Friday and other suspects are in detention with their small oil tanker with which they were trying to ship illegally refined oil products. They are members of an underground industry, which is said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars yearly.
The JTF said the oil thieves were using 13 large wooden boats, known as Cotonou boats, and a speed boat to ferry barrels of oil products to a ship with the capacity to hold around 1,000 barrels, valued at around $100,000. The crude oil was processed in one of the hundreds of makeshift illegal refineries hidden in the creeks. They were illegally lifting and transferring refined petroleum products into an oil vessel, marked MV Omiesam, with Registration No. IMO 7048611.
JTF spokesperson Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, said: “These suspects, who were nabbed by our patrol teams at River Akassa, were in the process of loading this vessel with illegally refined petroleum products. Presently, the oil vessel is detained at the Government Jetty in Yenagoa. These suspects have contributed to the destruction of the nation’s economy and the environment.”
From left: Suspected oil thieves arrested by the Navy in Bonny, Rivers State; one of the three vessels seized from the oil bandits by the Navy in Bonny; and a low scale illegal refinery, where crude oil is badly refined. Their activities also pollute the
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