A vessel (Tanker) named MT Morris and 10 crew members have been arrested by security operatives for crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
The suspected crude oil thieves were caught stealing directly from AITEO trunkline in Bille Kingdom, Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
AITEO Managing Director, Victor Okoronkwo, had at the last Practical Nigerian Content Forum (PNC) held in Yenagoa lamented the loss of four million barrels of crude oil to crude oil theft from the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL).
According to investigations, operatives of Labrador Security Outfit Unit 3 Bille Kingdom, which is in charge of surveillance of oil pipelines from Nembe to parts of Rivers State during night surveillance patrol spotted the suspected crude oil thieves and alerted Joint Task Force (JTF) Sector 3, Rivers State and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The JTF troops and NSCDC operatives stormed the vessel and arrested all the crew members before they could escape. The suspects upon interrogation narrated how they were using stealing directly from the AITEO trunk line.
The vessel and the crew members were moved to the headquarters of JTF Sector 3 and they have made very useful confessions. Some of the identified crew members are Bob Davies, Orok aya Etim, Godwin Bassey, Olaitan Oluwole, Olaniyi Godness, Felix Eboh, Ovie Disiye and Francis Jude
“A mighty loading vessel named MT Morris and 10 crew members were arrested for directly loading crude oil from AITEO trunk line at the said location. The vessel and the suspects have been moved to Sector 3 for further investigations” a JTF source said.
