The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Bayelsa State Command, says its operatives have detained four suspects and impounded a truck laden with suspected adulterated petroleum products.
Bayelsa Commandant of the NSCDC, Mrs Christiana Abiakam-Omanu, who made this known in a statement on Tuesday, attributed the feat to the reinforcement of the command’s intelligence unit.
She said that preliminary investigations revealed that the operators of the petrol laden truck had neither licence nor documents from any authorised petroleum products depot.
The commandant said the suspects would be prosecuted as soon as investigations were concluded.
Abiaka-Omanu said: “The four suspects were arrested on May 9, 2021, at about 1700 hours, based on a tip-off that a 45,000-litre capacity oil tanker with registration number AHD671XR, was about to discharge the product in a filling station along Ammasoma road in Yenagoa Local Government Area.
“At the point of arrest and during the interim investigation, no waybill, licence or other authority papers were presented to show for the genuineness of the product as well as authority to deal in petroleum product.”
She restated the resolve of the command’s determination to ensure that anyone involved in the act of operating illegal refineries, dealing in petroleum products without due licence, vandalism, oil theft and other related offences, was made to face the music.
She appealed to the members of the general public to continue to volunteer useful information to help the command in nipping crimes in the bud.