The police in Lagos State has reportedly recovered 3, 600 litres of fuel concealed in polythene bags by suspected pipeline vandals.
The police team on Saturday, reportedly stormed the Aquatira area, 1st Avenue by 12 Road, in the FESTAC area of the state when the suspected vandals fled the scene on a canoe.
Although the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Dolapo Badmos, could not confirm the report as at press time, a police source told the Punch that the suspected vandals always pumped fuel in the area at night, adding that the fuel was always stored in polythene bags.
The source also disclosed that the police recovered 24 polythene bags and each bag could take as much as 150 litres of fuel.
According to the source, the hoodlums were initially loading the fuel in a tanker, but later changed their technique so as to evade the vigilance of the police.
“They are pipeline vandals. There is a pipe that passed through a canal at FESTAC, buried deep in the waters. The vandals go down inside the canal, loosen the pipe, connect a hose to it and pump the fuel into a tanker.
“We have been monitoring them and we always arrest the tankers and because we have become used to their system, they devised another method. They get big polythene bags that can take as much as 150 litres of fuel. They load the bags with 100 litres of fuel so that they will not burst.
“After loading them with fuel, they put them into sacks and tie the sacks together. They put the sacks on the canal, but they are three-quarter buried inside the water and will not be visible to the eye.
“When their boat comes, they hook the sacks and take them to wherever they need them. But on the day of the incident, we intercepted them and immediately they saw us in our vehicle, they fled in their boat. We called the Marine Police to help us bring out the fuel,” the source added, noting that the fuel would be kept as exhibits or auctioning it after obtaining a court order.
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