Navy arrests 19 impostors, recovers 900,000 litres of crude oil

The Nigerian Navy has said it has arrested 19 fake personnel caught with its identity cards and camouflage in different parts of the country.

According to a release by the Navy Director of Information, Suleman Dahun, the impostors were rested in Lagos, Cross River and Rivers states, Cross River accounting for 13, Rivers five and Lagos one.

The arrested fake personnel, Dahun said, contravened sections 109, 110 and 251 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.

“Operatives have arrested a total of 19 imposters in the first quarter of 2019. A breakdown of those arrested shows that 13 were arrested in the Calabar and Ikang areas, five in the Port Harcourt area and one in Lagos.

“Typically, these criminals were arrested either in possession of a fake Navy ID card or dressed in navy uniforms; the camouflage and the blue rig”, he said.

The navy alao said on Sunday that its operatives recovered a boat drifting along Bolo Creek, in the Niger Delta region loaded with estimated 900,000 litres of crude oil and 2,500 litres of illegally refined diesel.

Read also: Two expatriates abducted at oil rig in Rivers

The navy noted that the wooden boat would be in its custody for a period of six months to wait for the owners, after which it would be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission “to obtain a forfeiture order in accordance with the law in the absence of any claim of its ownership.”

The navy spokesman called on the owner of the seized vessel in Bolo Creek should report to the navy or forfeit the vessels to the EFCC.

Dahun said: “The navy discovered a metal barge and a boat drifting along Bolo Creek and recovered them on Sunday. The barge and wooden boat were laden with an estimated 900,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil and 2,500 litres of product suspected to be illegally refined diesel.

“There were no suspects on board the vessels at the time of the recovery. In accordance with Part 6, Paragraph 17 of the Harmonised Standard Operating Procedures, owners of the vessels are to note that in the event of failure to show up, the agency reserves the power to obtain an order of forfeiture.”

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