At least 22 oil bunkers were arrested by officers of the Joint Task Force known as Operation Pulo Shield attached to the 13 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Calabar with 162 drums of diesel at the Calabar jetty.
The bunkers had siphoned the fuel from NNPC headlines before loading them in three boats at the high seas and transporting them to an empty compound at the Calabar Marina said to belong to one Ezekiel Nkereuwem.
The Army Public Relations Officer for the 13 Brigade, Calabar and the Sector Three Operation Pulo Shield, Captain Joseph James, said that the arrest of the bunkers was based on an intelligence report which led the men of the task force to swoop on the compound and arrest the suspects.
He said that some suspects were arrested at the Marina while some others were arrested at a filling station, MRS Filling Station along Mayne Avenue Calabar where diesel was being taken for onward sale.
According to him, “When our men stormed the compound, they arrested some suspects along with one hundred and sixty-four drums filled with diesel and another hundred and forty-six drums which were empty in the compound.”
He said that the drums were being taken to the MRS Filling Station where the diesel is emptied into surface tanks for onward loading to trucks and sold to other filling stations.
“At the MRS Filling Station, they load these products into their surface tanks and subsequently transfer them into standby trucks and sold to other filling stations. If you accost them on the way, they show you documents issued by the station that the product is bought there.”