20th August, 2014
JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin
The Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, has arrested and destroyed two Mack trucks each laden with 45,000 litres capacity while illegally siphoning Automated Gas Oil (AGO) at the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) pipeline along Imo Uzoakpo in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia state.
On sighting the Task Force, the suspected oil thieves abandoned their trucks with registration numbers XA 458 ABK and NSK 355 YF and fled into the bush.
A press statement issued and signed by the Joint Media Campaign Centre of Operation Pulo Shield, Lieutenant Colonel Mustapha Anka and made available to P.M. NEWS, said a reliable source told the Task Force that bunkering activities have been going on at site since the beginning of this year.
While thanking the Special Squad of the JTF for carrying out the operation, the source was quoted as saying, “The tankers come here every night to load their trucks with products without being challenged,” adding that, “it would will deter others from engaging in the act which he described as an economic sabotage to the Nigerian nation and hazardous to the environs.
The trucks together with illegal oil bunkering equipment were moved to a safer place by the JTF before they were set ablaze in line with its mandate and that of JTF Commander, Major General Emmanuel Atewe’s zero tolerance campaign on oil theft and illegal oil bunkering.
The JTF therefore urged the general public to provide useful information on the activities of the oil thieves and illegal oil bunkering to security agencies.
Present at the destruction of the trucks were the Manager, Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC), Aba Depot, the Chairman of Ukwa West Local Government Area, Mr Loveday Chigbu and Abia State Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Andy Datter.