- The arrested suspects whom he said have been handed over to the police for further investigation are Favour Chukwu, Desmond Umeh, Godwin Amos, Bineace Galion and Goodnews David
Over ten illegal refineries have been uncovered at Odagwa Community in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The illegal refineries were discovered by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad.
According to the security agency, the illegal refineries had an estimated 500,000 litres of Crude oil warehoused in about 50 illegally constructed Reservoirs.
The Rivers State Command Spokesperson of NSCDC, Superintendent Olufemi Ayodele, made the disclosure while parading some of the suspects arrested during the raid of the oil bunkering site in Odagwa Etche in Port Harcourt.
According to him, the arrested suspects whom he said have been handed over to the police for further investigation arr Favour Chukwu, Desmond Umeh, Godwin Amos, Bineace Galion and Goodnews David
Ayodele stated that the discovery was made possible by credible intelligence.
He said the NSCDC will continue to work relentlessly to combat crude oil theft, illegal mining, illegal dealings in petroleum products amongst others across the country.
“The Commandant General of the NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi has reiterated over time that all acts of economic sabotage would be fought to stand still as suspects arrested would face the full wrath of the law irrespective of their sponsors”
“In furtherance, the CG gave a marching order to the Special Intelligence Squad charging them to be more thorough and results oriented in their operations”
“Based on credible intelligence the CG’s SIS swung into action and uncovered 10 illegal local refineries in a forest located at Odagwa Community in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State where 5 suspects were caught in the act of illegally refining of crude oil,” he said.
He said about 10 different cooking pots of 50,000 litres capacity were seen with one Big Pumping machine, Receiver Tanks, 25 rubber hoses used for pumping crude oil and many long galvanized pipes with unqualified litres of crude oil and illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil stored in 6 very large reservoirs and other 20 smaller reservoirs were dug in the ground.