By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the Surveillance and Enforcement Team has arrested a gang of thieves that steal wellheads from oil rigs in the Niger Delta region.
IPMAN’s Sector ‘C’ Coordinator, Eshanekpe Israel, popularly called Akpodoro, made this known on Saturday.
According to a statement, the gang was smashed in the early hours of Saturday in Ughelli, Delta State.
A wellhead is valued at about N25 million and when it is removed from the rig, production activities on such a rig would be automatically paralysed, Vanguard reports.
The coordinator said the arrest was the first of its kind in the region as the group had operated for a long time have mastered the art of evading security.
The team, in collaboration with men of the Operation Delta Safe, OPDS, on night patrol intercepted one Endurance Sylva, at Ughelli in his black coloured Golf 4 Volkswagen Car with registration number: Delta SKR 998 AA conveying a suspected stolen wellhead to Warri.
On interrogation by the team, Sylva confessed that the wellhead was stolen from Kwale in Ndokwa West local government area of Delta State.
Akpodorosaid, “On hearing the voice of the operatives, the suspect climbed into the roof of his house and was captured inside his ceiling at exactly 3 am, Saturday, March 20th, 2020.
“Sylva confessed his accomplices to include: Isaiah Accra, who was swiftly arrested at 4 am in the morning at Oleh, headquarters of Isoko South Local area of the state; Larry who was said to be the middle man between them and the buyers is yet to be apprehended,” the statement read.
Sylva also said, ‘We are the ones who stole most of the wellheads from oil and gas facilities. This particular wellhead was stolen from an oil facility in Kwale, we stole from Port Harcourt too. So far, we have stolen three of this equipment in recent time. I built my house in Agbarha from the proceeds of stolen wellheads.”
Sylva was reportedly arrested and released in August last year by the operatives of the Nigerian Army for the dearth of evidence stated.
