Five foreigners allegedly involved in conveying products from pipeline vandals to Benin Republic, have been nabbed by men of Nigerian Navy Task Force in Lagos State, near Badagry.
The oil thieves made up of four teenagers from the Republic of Benin and a 50-year-old Ghanaian, were intercepted while in the process of conveying 113 50-litre jerrycans of petroleum products.
The Administration Officer, NNS Beecroft, Apapa, Commander Hyacynth Nwaka, while speaking with journalists when the suspects were being paraded, said operatives of the Task Force at Atlas Cove, while acting on an earlier information caught up with the suspects at 3.30a.m, and conveyed them to the base for further interrogation.
However, the suspects claimed that they were only fishermen from Seme area of Lagos, disclosing that they were instructed by some persons to convey the product to Seme, for onward sales and to be further transsported to Benin Republic.
One of the suspects said he was to be paid N4, 000 for the job.
The only 50-year-old Ghanaian among them, Nabroda Ajete, said he was told by a friend to bring 30 empty jerrycans to the shore, claiming that he had no idea that the mission was for an illegal oil deal. Commander Nwaka, affirmed that the suspects would be handed over to the police for further investigation.
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