By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN) has arrested four trucks with stolen Automotive Gas Oil, AGO.
The suspects, (names withheld) with vehicle registration numbers: NSR 357 G, KT650ZZ, GXH27XA and XD242HAG respectively were arrested at the Delta State Polytechnic Community of Uzoro on their Monday in Asaba.
Eshanekpe Israel (a.k.a Akpodoro), Head of Sector ‘C’ Surveillance and Enforcement Team of IPMAN, said the stolen products were loaded from Port Harcourt for onward delivery to Asaba, where their accomplices were waiting to receive the product, but were intercepted by the IPMAN surveillance team, who were working in collaboration with men of the Nigerian Army drawn from 181 battalion, Agbarah.
The Vanguard reports that the team leader, Akpodoro, noted that the arrest was one in a series of several actions taken to curb the menace of crimes and criminalities in the downstream sector of the oil industry in Delta State.
The IPMAN chief lamented that the state has hitherto been a safe haven for petroleum products thieves, adulterators, illegal bunkerers, pipeline vandals and host of other criminal activities that tends to hamper the economic wellbeing of the nation.
The IPMAN team, Akpodoro also noted, he has been facing daunting challenges in the hands of hoodlums in the state and its environs, adding that, the perpetrators of crimes in the oil and gas industry in the state often attack his men at the point of duties and this he said had happened severally.
