The Nigerian Navy has bursted vandals’ strongholds and intercepted 1.1 million litres of diesel belonging to oil majors in River State.
The Officer in charge of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Capt. Victor Choji, disclosed this in Port Harcourt.
He said that 13 suspected persons were nabbed for illegally shipping petroleum products in the state.
Choji pointed out that the seizure of the products and arrests of suspects were through a clean up exercise in the state to check illegal refining.
He added that the other items seized includes; one tug boat, one barge and five large wooden boats.
Choji said that the suspects and the items seized would be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for onward prosecution.
Most of the suspects were nabbed while loading the petroleum products into trucks at night, he said.
Choji narrated: “On May 6, troops intercepted and seized a vessel, MT Preye 1, and five very large wooden boats with about 409,399 litres of suspected refined diesel at Eagle Island.
“Eleven crew members on board the vessel were subsequently arrested and had been in custody undergoing investigation.
“Therefore, on June 19, JTF arrested a tug boat, PK II, and a barge, Naomi 03, laden with about 700,000 litres of suspected illegally refined diesel, in which two suspects were nabbed over their involvement in the illegal shipment of the petroleum products.”