AT the Zone 2 Command, Lagos, headquarters of the pipeline vandalism unit, five deadly pipeline vandals are now in detention for their alleged bunkering activities.
The suspects are singing different tunes of their roles in vandalism and tapping of oil within Arepo/Imagbon pipeline in Ikorodu, Lagos.
Alhaji Ogunse Security Service, an in-house security outfit assigned to the Imagbon/Elepete creeks of Ikorodu waterways arrested the suspects, police sources told The Moment.
The vandals were returning to their hideout at Majidun when personnel of Ogunse Security Services accosted them. Ike Opute, a member of the Ogunse Security Services team, told The Moment that they saw about 200 canoes loaded with 50-litre plastic kegs and when they accosted the suspects, some of the vandals opened fire on the security men, while others jumped into the river, leaving one Asupa.
Alhaji Tajudeen Adeoye, managing director, Ogunse Security Services, confirmed the arrest of one of the suspects and said his men overpowered the suspect before he was arrested. He said the suspect was taken to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) office in Mosimi, where the police, pipeline vandalism unit, of Zone 2 Command took custody of him.
The area manager of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, Mosimi area office, Engr. F. A. Woro, had earlier petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police on May 25, 2011 on the vandalism of the corporation’s oil pipelines in the area. The petition, with the number PPMC/MAO/AM.09, addressed to the AIG, Zone 2 Command, Lagos, was titled ‘Incident Report on Attack by Vandals at Koonu Creek, Owutu, Ikorodu, and Lagos.’
The petition said the company had lost huge quantities of petroleum products arising from the incessant bunkering in the area. It further stated that pipeline vandalism within the Ikorodu axis had become a daily occurrence.
‘Following increased pipeline vandalism at Arepo/Imagbon segment of the Atlas Cove/Mosimi pipeline, which results in huge loss of product and disruption of product movement, we engaged the security guards to monitor and ward off vandals from entering Koonu creeks and Elepete Creeks in Oke-Oko village, Owutu,’ he said.
The Moment also gathered that NNPC had earlier reported and handed over a suspect following his arrest at Koonu Creek in Oke-Oko with 1,000 50-litre kegs full of petrol.
The petition stated further that after the arrest of the suspect, the vandals attacked the guards, kidnapped a security guard and destroyed the house and properties of Ogunse.
On May 24, 2011, at about 2:00 p.m, with AK-47 rifles and other firearms, the vandals launched an attack on the NNPC office in revenge and took captive security guards of the NNPC, along with two double-barreled guns; after blowing up NNPC pipelines. In addition, the hoodlums, that same day, attacked the Mobile Police unit attached to the security guards. But the policemen fled the scene.
‘The Vandals launched another attack at about 1930hours the same day, which led to the destruction of the security service provider’s house, vehicle, motorcycle, a mosque and two security posts. The attack was so ferocious that the Mobil Police attached to protect our security guards fled,’ the petition to the AIG read.
Adeoye confirmed that the whereabouts of his security personnel kidnapped by the vandals are still unknown. Efforts by the families to trace them have proved abortive.
‘My effort to stop the vandals led to the attack on my person and family members. My younger brother, Alhaji Kamorudeen Adebisi Adeoye, has been kidnapped and taken into the creeks within Ikorodu waterways and the news going round has it that he has been killed and dumped into the creeks,’ Adeoye said.
Investigations revealed that despite the arrest of some members of the syndicate, the vandalism and tapping of the oil pipelines have continued unchecked — even the presence of NNPC security guards at Arepo/Imagbon has not deterred the criminals. It has also been alleged that some traditional rulers in Ikorodu, the police and some NNPC officials are conniving with the vandals in perpetrating the criminal acts.
Efforts by The Moment to go into the creeks were thwarted as the vandals, who supposedly live in the creeks, shot sporadically into the air. It has been confirmed that the Oke-Oko/Koonu River axis is the only escape route for the vandals after tapping the oils from Arepo/Imagbon pipelines, while the Imedu Mawere and Majidun axis is the only depot where buyers from neighbouring countries, Benin and Togo, illegally ferry petroleum products out of Nigeria.
One of the community leaders at Oke-Oko who identified himself as Alhaji Olarewaju, confirmed that, for the past 10 years, vandalism and tapping of oil pipelines have been in vogue and till date no fishing activities have been going on in the rivers, as a result of pollution of the waters by vandals who tap the pipeline underneath the river, causing oil spillage.
An official of the NNPC at Mosimi Area Office who spoke with The Moment on condition of anonymity said NNPC officials at the headquarters in Abuja and the police were to blame for the unchecked activities of the vandals. At the Zone 2 Command, the officer in charge of the pipeline vandalism unit, Mr. Segun Fagba, a superintendent of police, confirmed the arrest of the suspects through the efforts Ogunse Security Services and further stated that another suspect had been arrested during their combing of the area.
‘We were alerted by the NNPC that a suspect had been arrested. We took custody of the suspect and information gathered from him led to the arrest of four other members of the gang but we could not go into the creeks for further arrest because we do not know the terrain of the creek and thousands of 50-litre kegs were found with them,’ he said.
Police Public Relation Officer for Zone 2, Mr. Igwe, said he was unaware of the arrests and he as such he could not comment on the matter.
As at press time the suspects were making contradictory statements, and may be arraigned before a federal high court soon.
In a related development, two people, a man and a woman, were arrested with over 50 plastic kegs of 50 litres stockpiled in a red van en route to Arepo/Imagbon oil taps freight oil products supposedly stolen from the pipelines.
The woman suspect claimed that she was only a buyer of petroleum products from syndicates operating within the Arepo/Imagbon axis and added that she has been into the business for the past five years, while the male suspect equally claimed that he was only a driver to the woman and confirmed also that they have been into the business of ferrying petroleum products to neighbouring countries.