By Philip Nwosu
Operatives of the Nigerian Navy, attached to the force’s operational base, the NNS BEECROFT, have uncovered two coastal communities in Lagos State, where oil thieves used as a loading bay of stolen petroleum products.
The operatives also impounded 90 drums filled with 250 litres of petroleum products that were recovered in a fibre boat, in one of the communities located in the Ijegun area of the state.
The discovery came in the wake of another discovery in Folu community in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos, where a tanker loaded with 180 litres of AGO and some 25 litres jerry cans was recovered by the force.
The Commander, NNS Beecroft, Commodore Kolawole Oguntuga, disclosed this to the media on Monday, explaining that the recoveries were made barely five days after the Nigerian Navy launched Operation Water Guard, aimed at making the waterways uncomfortable for oil thieves and other maritime illegalities.
He said: “As part of the tremendous successes of this operation, on November 11, 2023, around 2.20am, based on reliable intelligence of movement of product in a blue fibre boat, men of Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft and Operation Awatse, a maritime component, were dispatched to a community around Ijegun, where this large fibre boat (pointing at the exhibits) with over 90 drums filled with 250 litres capacity petroleum product, suspected to be Premium Motor Spirit, were recovered.
“The vessels assembled to carry out this operation are enormous. In addition, we have quick response teams stationed along the coast from Badagry down to Lekki.
“Based on intelligence as well as deploying the Falcon Eye facility, we gathered that products in jerry cans were being brought from neighbouring states and transferred into tankers in the Folu community in Ibeju Lekki, a border community between Lagos State and Ogun State. We found an 18,000 litres tanker with product suspected to be AGO, as well as pumping machines, hoses and jerry cans. The perpetrators abandoned the boat and product and absconded, on sighting the men.
“Apart from the fact that this product will not make Premium Motor Spirit available for Nigerians, which the Nigerian Navy is trying to curb, it also has the potential of triggering fire with catastrophic consequences on life and property”.
He, however, stated that the Nigerian Navy, under the watch of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, was bent on curbing the menace, urging perpetrators of the illegal act, “particularly vessels that carry this product and try to compromise by giving them to perpetrators, to desist from this act because, henceforth, apart from the fact that we are going to bring them to book, we might be tempted to use force, which could mean deactivating vessels that are found indulging in this kind of economic sabotage”.
Commodore Oguntuga also appealed to parents and guardians to warn their children and wards to resist the temptation of indulging in oil theft and any other maritime illegality within the NNS Beecroft’s jurisdiction, reminding that ”going forward, the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies will become very hard on perpetrators because we need to stop this nonsense.
“As the yuletide season approaches, we really want to stamp out these illegalities. The Nigerian Navy is really on aggressive patrol around the various pipelines conveying this product day and night, with the deployment of human intelligence as well as electro optical equipment to scan round the maritime environment.”
Commander Beecroft said: “Probably we have been using kids gloves on these guys. We are going to change our modus operandi and force will be applied. Maybe, this will send a strong message”.