Oil theft: Operation Delta Safe impounds vessel, arrests two in Bayelsa

The Joint Military Force in the Niger Delta said on Friday it arrested two suspected oil thieves and impounded a vessel involved in illegal bunkering activities in Bayelsa State waterways.
The joint force, christened Operation Delta Safe, said it impounded 300 metric tons capacity vessel currently anchored at Forward Operation Base in Formosso, Brass in Bayelsa State.
Navy Captain Mayowa Olukoya, the Commander of FOB, handed the two suspects over to Operation Delta Safe on board the barge.
Chinwuzor Austin, the Commander of National Security and Civil Defence Component of Operation Delta Safe, received the suspects at the naval base in Brass.
Speaking at the brief handover, Olukoya said the two suspects were caught while loading the barge with suspected illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel.
Olukoya said: “On July 25, my men of Nigeria Navy Ship Sorro and FOB were alerted of suspected illegal bunkering activities at Oluasiri near Nembe.
“On arrival, a barge was being loaded with substance suspected to be illegally refined AGO.
“Two suspects were apprehended, while two escaped even as we are intensifying efforts to arrest them.
“We actually caught them in the act.
“The volume of the AGO so far loaded into the 300 metric tons capacity barge is yet to be ascertained.”
Olukoya said three local boats used by the suspected oil thieves were set ablaze at the crime scene.
The spokesman of Operation Delta Safe, Lieutenant Colonel Olaolu Daudu, who witnessed the handover, said the suspects would be interrogated and handed over to the prosecuting agencies after preliminary investigations.