Lagos State police arrested a suspected vandal, Moshood Jibril, who claims that his gang usually settles security agents with about N500,000 to transport stolen petrol to Ibadan, Oyo State.
Jibril, who was arrested with his pal, Joseph Friday, said he also brought in cars illegally from Benin Republic to sell in the country.
It was gathered that the suspects were arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Taskforce on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism on Friday in the Isolo area of the state, after they had allegedly stolen 33,000 litres of stolen fuel from a pipeline that belonged to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in the Ijegun area.
Jibril said the truck conveying the products belonged to his older brother, identified as Rasheed Adewale.
He said:
โMy job is to escort the truck from Lagos after we have loaded the fuel. I would drive behind the truck and a woman called Anna would bring N500,000 which we would use to settle security agents on our way.
โIt was while we were waiting for the woman on Friday that the police arrested me. I did not know how they found out that we had just finished loading.
โI also do smuggling. I bring cars from the Benin Republic to various parts of the country. It was my elder brother, Rasheed, who introduced me to this business. He is the owner of the products and the Toyota car I was caught with.โ
His pal, Friday, said he was promised N300,000 to deliver the fuel to buyers in Ibadan.
He said:
โThis is the first time I would be called for the job. I had never stolen fuel before. I was promised N300,000 by one Bayo who invited me. I did not know that it is called illegal bunkering.
โThey said I was going to move fuel from a faulty truck in the area. But when I got there, I saw a long hose on the ground and they started pumping. I saw that the hose was connected to a damaged pipeline.
โBayo and a woman, simply known as Anna, were the ones loading the fuel. They told me some soldiers were aware of the deal, and they would provide protection for me. It was when we got to the Isolo Bridge that the police arrested us.โ
Punch
