By Goodluck Ikiebe.
As part of the renewed efforts to protect oil pipeline, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos State Command, has evacuated twenty sacks loaded with suspected vandalised litres of Premium Motor Spirit at Akute Odo/ Aruwajoye Area, a boundary community between Lagos and Ogun states.
Lagos Commandant, Eweka Douglas Okoro, said that, “Towards ensuring a zero tolerance against oil pipeline vandalism and other form of criminalities in Lagos state, the Command’s operatives detailed to the ‘Right of Way,’ to ensure the protection of the nation’s oil pipelines, yesterday, Friday, 30th July, 2021, at midnight at about 01:25hrs upon receiving an intelligent information via the Command’s robust and compact community based intelligence network, raced to the Akute – Odo / Aruwajoye Area, to burst the inimical and evil activities of suspected vandals in the state”.
The Commander, Right of Way, in the Command , Deputy Superintendent of Corps ( DSC) Gbenga Akinnibosun, who headed the team that cracked the dastard act of the vandals, further said that the vandals on sighting the gallant men of the Corps at the scene took to their heels when they were about perfecting their evil act of economic sabotage.
According to him, It is also pertinent to state that the Anti – Vandal Unit of the Command was also drafted to render back up aid to the operatives at the scene, should there be reprisal attacks.
Eweka explained that the Command’s combined team discovered and evacuated thick nylons ( white colour ) wrapped with sacks loaded with unknown quantity of litres of petrol, numbering twenty (20) in quantity and another hundreds of empty 25litre kegs, which the vandals intended to cart away via a wooden path around the submerged area of Akute – Odo / Aruwajoye in a boundary between Lagos and Ogun State.
“The hundreds of empty 25litre kegs discovered were also utterly destroyed by the gallant men, so as to discourage the act, from being further perpetrated”, he noted.
He said the evacuated products had since been brought to the State Command, Head Quarters, in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, to carry out further investigation.
The Commandant also directed that the security of lives and property and the protection of oil pipelines in the Area be beefed up immediately.
Eweka Okoro said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC ) office in the state had also been contacted for proper evacuation of the products because of the highly inflammable nature of it.
The Commandant used the occasion of the successful operation, to further reiterate the Command’s readiness and commitment to ensuring a zero tolerance against oil pipeline vandalism and other forms of criminalities in the state.
He further assured the the Government and people of Lagos State of his unflinching commitment and dedication towards sustaining the already established peace and security in the state, promising that the Corps will continue to work assiduously with the Government and other security agencies and stakeholders to further proffer solutions to any form of security challenges that may want to raise their ugly heads.
