Four bunkering suspects have been arrested by operatives of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Delta State.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that NSCDC intercepted six tankers and articulated trucks loaded with stolen and illegally refined petroleum products suspected to be automated gasoline oil.
NSCDC spokesperson in the state, Emeka Okwechime, confirmed the development in a statement on Wednesday.
He said men of the Special Intelligence Squad of the NSCDC burst into the suspects’ secret loading point at Odorubu waterside, in the Patani Local Government Area of the state.
He added that the suspected vandals used a tanker to barricade the only road leading to the illegal loading point to prevent security operatives from gaining access to the premises.
Okwechime said, “The officers engaged the services of six truck drivers, two auto electricians and a tow truck, which towed away the heavily loaded 120-litres capacity truck used by the crude oil thieves to barricade the road leading to the illegal loading point.
“Consequently, the four suspects were arrested in a separate operation in Warri with a Toyota Camry blue car with number plate BMA 786 TN and a Toyota Sienna with number plate KSF 107 CD, both loaded with illegally refined petroleum product suspected to be AGO concealed in 25-litre polythene sacks numbering about 300.”
Okwechime identified the names of the suspects as Clement Mike, 34; Tobore Morgan, 39; Chinwe Ikpeamachukwu, 40, and Jeff Oluchi, 29, now at large.
He said the suspects were currently undergoing investigation and would be charged to court accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others.
NSCDC is a paramilitary institution in Nigeria that was established in May 1967 by the Nigerian Government, with the act of the National Assembly.
The act was amended in 2007, to enhance the statutory duties of the corp.
It was commissioned to provide measures against threats and any form of attack or disaster against the nation and its citizenry.
The corps is statutorily empowered by lay Act No. 2 of 2003 and amended by Act 6 of 4 June 2007.
The Corps is empowered to institute legal proceedings by or in then and of the Attorney General of the Federation in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against any person or persons suspected to have committed an offence, maintain an armed squad in order to bear firearms among others to strengthen the corps in the discharge of its statutory duties.
The NSCDC was first introduced in May 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War within the then Federal Capital Territory of Lagos for the purpose of sensitization and protection of the civil populace. It was then known as Lagos Civil Defence Committee.
It later metamorphosed into the present-day NSCDC in 1970. On inception, the Corps had the objective of carrying out some educational and enlightenment campaigns in and around the Federal Capital of Lagos to sensitize members of the civil populace on enemy attacks and how to save themselves from danger as most Nigerians living in and around Lagos territory then had little or no knowledge about war and its implications.
Members of the Committee deemed it important to educate through electronic and print media on how to guide themselves during air raids, bomb attacks, identify bombs and how to dive into trenches during a bomb blast.
In 1984, the Corps was transformed into a National security outfit and in 1988, there was a major re-structuring of the Corps that led to the establishment of Commands throughout the Federation, including Abuja, and the addition of special functions by the Federal Government.
On 28 June 2003, an Act to give statutory backing to the NSCDC passed by the National Assembly was signed into law by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, the former president and Commander in chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria.