Ten persons on board a vessel, MT Morris, have been arrested by security operatives for crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
They were caught stealing directly from AITEO trunk line in Bille Kingdom, Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
According to investigations, operatives of Labrador Security Outfit Unit 3 Bille Kingdom, which is in charge of surveillance of oil pipelines from Nembe in Bayelsa to parts of Rivers State, during night surveillance patrol spotted the suspected crude oil thieves and alerted Joint Task Force Sector 3, Rivers State and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The JTF troops and NSCDC operatives stormed the vessel and arrested all crew members before they could escape.
The suspects upon interrogation narrated how they were stealing directly from the AITEO trunk line.
The vessel and crew members were moved to the headquarters of JTF Sector 3 and they have made very useful confessions
Some of the identified crew members are Bob Davies, Orok aya Etim, Godwin Bassey, Olaitan Oluwole, Olaniyi Godness, Felix Eboh, Ovie Disiye, and Francis Jude.
“A mighty loading vessel named MT Morris and 10 crew members were arrested for directly loading crude oil from AITEO trunk line at the said location. The vessel and suspects have been moved to Sector 3 for further investigations,” a JTF source said.