The Joint Military Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, said it has uncovered new tactics by oil thieves operating in the region who now use sewage trucks to carry stolen petroleum products to evade arrest.
The outfit’s Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre, Lt.-Col. Mustapha Anka, said yesterday that its operatives operating on information, had intercepted a sewage truck with 12,000 capacity loaded with stolen crude oil.
He said the truck was intercepted along Ibada Amukpe community in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State.
Anka said, “The sewage truck was declared to be carrying waste and heading for disposal dump by the occupants of the truck. But, it was however discovered to be carrying illegally acquired crude oil.
“Both the suspects and the products are in the custody of the JTF for preliminary investigation before handing them over to relevant prosecuting agency. The task force has recently discovered illegal oil dump buried inside shrines, sitting room and septic tank.”
The coordinator also said the JTF troops, during an operation recently, searched a house of a notorious criminal and discovered one AK 47 assault rifle with registration number CK28817. He added that one foreign made barrelled gun and a locally-made single barrelled gun with 12 live cartridges were also recovered.
He said no arrest was made as the criminals had escaped before the arrival of the troops, stressing that the weapons and the cartridges were in the JTF custody.
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