NSCDC bursts syndicates siphoning fuel in Rivers

The Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Monday burst a syndicate at Ogali Eleme in the state that allegedly specialised in siphoning fuel from a major Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline that supplies fuel to Aba, Enugu and Makurdi. Conducting journalists round the vandalised fuel pipeline, the […]

The Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Monday burst a syndicate at Ogali Eleme in the state that allegedly specialised in siphoning fuel from a major Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline that supplies fuel to Aba, Enugu and Makurdi.

Conducting journalists round the vandalised fuel pipeline, the Assistant Commandant-General of NSCDC, Muhammed Haruna, said the syndicates which operated from a residential building, dug a tunnel from where they connected a hose to NNPC fuel pipeline that supplied the product into storage tanks installed in the residential building.

He said: “We had an intelligence report that NNPC fuel pipeline was breached. We came here and discovered that some syndicates that specialized in vandalising fuel pipelines intercepted a major pipeline supplying fuel to Aba, Enugu and Makurdi.

“They dug a tunnel from where they connected a hose to the pipeline that transports fuel to other parts of the country. They connected the hose through a tunnel to GP tanks installed inside the building. The hose transports PMS from the pipeline through the tunnel to the tanks.

“This act of economic sabotage was concealed in an uncompleted building inside a residential building. Nobody would have suspected that such criminal activity was going on until it was bursted.”

He said one of the key suspects has been arrested while the command is on the trail of others.