The 6 Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt said its men have arrested 12 persons for their alleged involvement in illegal oil bunkering.
The army said the 12 suspects were arrested by the troops of the Division while siphoning crude oil from the Rumuekpe/Okporowo pipeline near the Okoba community in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Garrison Commander, 6 Division, Nigeria Army Headquarters in Port Harcourt, Brigadier General Edi Effiong, disclosed this while parading the suspects before newsmen on Monday.
Effiong, who is also the Commander of Sector 3, Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Taskforce said the suspects would be handed over to the appropriate agency for prosecution.
Effion stated, “These ones that have been grabbed, first of all, we will profile them. We are not the prosecuting agency. So we will hand them over to the prosecuting agency.
“For oil bunkering activities, it is the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps that is in charge after profiling and getting some information from them. ”
The Garrison Commander added, “We are here to checkmate the activities of illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta because if we do not checkmate these activities they will affect us and the economy.
“So we want to ensure that the oil bunkers are not given the freedom to do whatever they want so as not to affect us in terms of the economy.”
Earlier, the spokesperson for the Division, Lieutenant Colonel Ikedichi Iweha, said the 12 suspected oil thieves were arrested on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2023. Some of the Items recovered from the suspected oil thieves were drums of crude oil, motorcycles, wheelbarrows, and jerricans
