Nine individuals involved in oil theft at an illegal refinery located in a forested area on the boundary between Rivers and Abia States have been arrested by Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
According to the NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, the suspects, aged between 20 and 53 years, were caught in the act of refining stolen crude oil extracted from a vandalized oil wellhead.
The illegal site featured extensive infrastructure, including large hoses and galvanized metal pipes used to transfer stolen crude oil across various processing channels.
The NSCDC also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude oil at once.
“We apprehended nine suspects caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil wellhead.
“We also discovered an ongoing construction of a local refinery with the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once, he added.
The illegal site featured extensive infrastructure, including large hoses and galvanised metal pipes used to transfer stolen crude oil across various processing channels.
The suspects include Oghene Wede (32), Moses James (25), Chidi Nwosu (53), Samuel John (24), Emmanuel Paul (20), Oghenevo Nwebi (43), Martina Whinnypeter (38), Nwabuchi Nwogu (41), and David Okere (20).
“Exhibits recovered are RWD 5.0 GFE-6500 power generating set, two yellow colour pumping machines, metal and plastic buckets, cutlasses, saw, mats, welding Machine, galvanized metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, automotive gas oil illegally processed in cooking ovens,” Afolabi added.
