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The Nigerian Army revealed on Thursday that troops from the 81 Division when carrying out Operation “Swift Response” in charge of the Joint Border Drill Patrol have intercepted 2 Filling Stations involved in smuggling petroleum products around the border town at Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The federal government had constituted a security patrol, comprising the Army, Customs, and Police, to checkmate the illegal activities of smugglers around the border communities of the country.
Finds show that smugglers take the product to sell illegally in the neighboring Republic of Benin.
.However, the patrol troops deployed for anti-smuggling operations on patrol, during a routine patrol, discovered that all the filling stations at Imeko Afon Local Government Area were not dispensing fuel.
But in a statement by Major Olaniyi Osoba, Acting Deputy Director, 81 Division Army Public Relations, he said the investigation revealed that most of the filling stations that were not dispensing fuel during the day were active at night, supplying fuel to their cronies.
According to him, following this discovery, the troops in conjunction with personnel of Operation “Swift Response” conducted a dawn operation on 16 July 2022, and discovered 2 filling stations siphoning Premium Motor Spirit into Jerry cans at Imeko.
He said on sighting the troop, the suspected fuel attendant and buyers fled the scene, adding that a search behind the station and its surroundings led to the recovery of filled jerrican already loaded into vehicles and ready to be smuggled out.
“At the end of the operation, a total of Two Hundred and Three (30 Litres) Jerricans were confiscated, out of which one hundred and forty-eight were filled with PMS. One dane gun, 3 generators, 4 vehicles, and 6 motorcycles were discovered hidden in the bush path,” the statement said.
He said the items seized were handed over to the Nigeria Customs Service.