Nigeria’s stolen petroleum products have been traced to markets in neighbouring West African countries such as Benin Republic and Togo, according to top officials of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
Spokesperson for the PPMC, Mr. Raphael Ugwu, said at the weekend that there had been a rise in the vandalisation of petroleum products pipelines and theft of the products from the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos State.
Ugwu said the vandals had become so sophisticated in their acts, operating like a cartel or cult with buyers spread across the West African coast.
According to him, to stem the trend, the PPMC had to invite the Army to partner with the Navy in the protection and surveillance of the nation’s petroleum pipeline infrastructure.
He said a recent surveillance operation by the Army had led to the discovery of a camp in Robert Village, a little community on the Atlas Cove Island, where a cartel that specializes in the vandalisation and theft of products operated for years. He said the camp was raided and more than 10 suspects arrested.
Ugwu, took journalists on a tour of the village with some military personnel led by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Maj. General E. C. Nwanguma.
“We have finally caught the cartel of thieves that break our pipelines and steal our products from the Atlas Cove Jetty and they operate in such a sophisticated way; an unbroken chain so smooth - from those who cut the pipes to those who scope the fuels, store it and there is a ready market in the neighbouring West African countries of Benin and Togo,” said Ugwu.
Asked why he suspected that the fuel was sold outside Nigeria, Ugwu said, preliminary investigations had shown that the vandals would not have made any meaningful profits selling the fuel in Nigeria because the PPMC had flooded the market with enough products that were sold at regulated prices, and with no scarcity situation, the next option for the discharge of the product was outside the country.
He said the presence of foreigners among those caught, especially Ghanaians, had further confirmed allegations that the products were sold outside Nigeria.
“They can’t sell it in Nigeria and make profit,” Ugwu said of the stolen products. “The market for such stolen good is outside where if the price for a litre is the equivalent of N200 or N300, they can give it away at N150 or thereabout and still make enough profit,” he added.
Area Manager of the Mosimi Office of the PPMC, Mr. Felix Wono, who was part of the team on the tour decried the activities of the gang describing it as an economic sabotage and vowed to prosecute those caught.
Wono said about 60 suspected vandals caught in previous years had been remanded in various prisons in the Lagos awaiting trial.
He said the vandals were deadly armed and that they had men and women who used to mount surveillance for them, while their operation lasted incase of the approach of Navy or Army personnel.
Said Wono, “the vandals are deadly armed and they disguise in the form of fishermen or farmers. If you approached them, they pretend to be mending their nets or engaging in serious farm work. And they appear so innocent that you won’t want to disrupt their work for fear that you might be infringing on the rights of innocent people.”
Army Commander for the Atlas Cove Jetty, Major Denis Dokubo, recounting how the members of the cartel were caught said the army had approached a group of persons who appeared to be fishermen, but they fled leaving their net. Their action raised suspicion which made the soldiers to pursue them to the village where it was found out that the whole area was inhabited by a syndicate of armed robbers whose sole work was petroleum products theft.
“What they are fishing and farming is petroleum products,” Dokubo said. “It is a major scale fraud where they cut the pipes at night and connect them to the sea via another pipe and from there they pump the products and get them loaded into jerrycans they buried in the earth by the seashore and later shipped them for sales in markets outside the country. It is very hard to detect these things,” Dokubo added.
Journalists were shown the camp where the vandals operated as well as hundreds of jerrycans loaded with petroleum products that were intercepted by the soldiers.
“What I have seen is really shocking,” said Nwanguma, the GOC, who was on the tour. “To do this, you need to operate a serious syndicate; finding the men and women behind the syndicate might appear a challange, but we will get them,” he added.
Some of the suspects paraded said they could not communicate in English or Yoruba as they were not Nigerians, a trend that raises many questions on the state of security at the nation’s borders where foreigners can come in and carry out acts of economic sabotage without being detected by security operatives.
The Altas Cove Jetty, as a strategic national asset which pumps more than 65 per cent of products out of Lagos to other parts of the country, was recently attacked by militants whose superior firepower had overwhelmed the Nigerian Navy.
thus necessitating the drafting of the Army to assist in the security of the asset.
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