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Ben Dunno, Warri
The joint operation of a private security firm, Tantita Security outfit and the operatives of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), paid off on Thursday with the arrest of an ocean going vessel, MT Kali with number 8782800, along the coastal area of Bayelsa state.
The vessel was said to have been intercepted at the point of siphoning a large volume of illegal crude oil without documentation approval from a major offshore platform identified as Sokebolou Oil Field located on Bayelsa waterways into its tanks.
Arrested alongside the impounded vessel were crew members who identified themselves as Promise Eze and David Adeboye, the Engineer and Captain respectively.
On interrogation, Adeboye was heard confessing to be working in collaboration with some local indigenes of oil producing communities in Bayelsa state who introduced them to the location of the oil field.
It was gathered that the crew and their local accomplices had been involved in the act of siphoning crude oil into the vessel from offshore Sokebolou Field in Bayelsa State before luck ran out on them on Thursday when the combined operatives of TSSNL and NSCDC clamped on them.
Sources close to the scene of the arrest disclosed that the first manifold of the vessel was being loaded with the crude oil before the interception of the security operatives.
TSSNL is said to have intimated the incident to the National Security Officer (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and the board and management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL).
The two principal suspects, Eze and Adeboye were grilled by the Executive Director, Operations, TSSNL, Captain Warriedi Enisuoh.
He said the vessel was mobilised from Lagos to load crude oil illegally from offshore locations in Bayelsa State.
During interrogation, Adeboye, disclosed that the vessel departed Lagos following assurances by their boss, whom they identified as one Adeniyi, that all security agencies (which he didn’t name) along the shore had been “settled” for an unhindered access to the location.
He, however, identified the thieving company’s name as San-San
In the meantime, the impounded vessel, MT Kali, is currently anchored at an NNPCL location in Oporoza, the headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta State, while further investigations continued.
