Vandals relocate from Arepo, settle at Atlas Cove

There are strong indications that suspected pipeline vandals may have relocated their operational base from Arepo in Ogun State to Atlas Cove in Lagos. A pointer to this is the recovery, at Atlas Cove, of thousands of 25-litre plastic jerry cans containing petroleum products allegedly stolen from pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation […]

There are strong indications that suspected pipeline vandals may have relocated their operational base from Arepo in Ogun State to Atlas Cove in Lagos.

A pointer to this is the recovery, at Atlas Cove, of thousands of 25-litre plastic jerry cans containing petroleum products allegedly stolen from pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The pipelines run from the Atlas Cove in Apapa to the Ejigbo and Mosimi depots in Lagos and Ogun states respectively.

The Nigerian Navy disclosed that its operatives from the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT raided the Atlas Cove area and recovered over 100,000 jerry cans that suspected vandals had taken to the riverine community for use in carting away stolen petroleum products.

The Naval authority said the activities of vandals had galvanised the NNS BEECROFT leadership to deploy drones to monitor pipelines in the area.

About a week ago, the ship launched Operation Kuronbe, a Yoruba term for ‘Leave There’.

The operation was said to have unearthed a massive scale of pipeline vandalism at the Atlas Cove in Lagos.

The vandalism, according to the naval authorities, spanned 72 kilometres and extended to the Mosimi depot in Ogun State.

Eko Trust gathered that military men operating on the platform of Operation AWATSE Joint Taskforce had once dislocated the vandals from Arepo in Ogun State.

But, our correspondent learnt, the vandals found an ingenious way to continue their atrocities by digging holes underground to siphon products from NNPC pipelines, using jerry cans.

Operation Kuronbe, however, burst their activities at Atlas Cove and, as our correspondent gathered, the taskforce, in one night alone, seized 30,000 25-litre jerry cans of petroleum products, which total pump price was put at N108.75 million.

Naval sources said the task force destroyed illegal structures, which the vandals had constructed on the pipeline’s right of way.

Although the task force had marked 200 structures for destruction, those that had been destroyed already included 12 structures in Old Akinbo, five in Aditu, 17 in phase two, 22 in Ikate, five in Upstairs, three in Virgin Land, three in White House and over 62 in Akaraba.

The Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Oladele Daji, who led the operation, spoke of how vandals had breached the NNPC lines and the nation had been suffering massive losses of petroleum products.

Daji said, “These losses run into billions of naira. Hence, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin, directed Operation Awatse (of which Operation Kuronbe is a spin-off), an internal security operation covering Lagos and parts of Ogun State, to specifically combat the scourge of pipeline vandalism and oil theft in these states, as well as curb other criminal activities like kidnapping and cultism.

“Pipelines must be sanitised, loopholes must be blocked and all those involved in this illegal activity will be brought to book.”

On the task force’s plan to fish out the end- buyers of stolen petroleum products, Daji said, “We will stop them from getting the products from the source and deny them the capacity to move them to end-buyers. The end-buyers are of no significance if the criminals do not get the products.”