The Nigerian Navy (NNS) Commander Beecroft, Apapa, Lagos, Commodore Kolawale Oguntuga, on Friday handed over five suspects allegedly arrested for oil theft to the Lagos State Police Command.
Oguntade said the suspects were arrested on the waterways in Itolu community, Lekki area of Lagos on Tuesday, by NNS operatives patrol team, stationed at Forward Operations Base (FOB) Lekki.
He said the operatives heard a gunshot and in a swift response to a distress call by some youths in the area, the suspects were arrested while other members of the gang, whom they also sighted in two other wooden boats, escaped.
The commander said that the team recovered a boat engine and arrested four suspects wearing Tantitan Security Pipeline Surveillance employees and one boat operator.
“Upon arrival at the scene, the naval team met four individuals dressed in black polo shirts with TANTITAN inscribed on the back, trying to recover a dismantled outboard engine from a local.
“It was after their arrest that the patrol team realised that the four individuals were part of a movement of a large wooden boat with two fibre boats.
“The four individuals beckoned on the two fibre boats to approach them, but when they noticed NN patrol teams, the boats altered courses, fled and abandoned the large wooden boat laden with 11 x 1000L Geepee tanks with product suspected to be stolen crude oil,” he said.
Oguntade said the suspects were handed over to the police as part of the synergies in crime fighting by NNS, for further investigation and prosecution.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr Idowu Owohunwa, who received the suspects and the exhibits at the command’s headquarters Ikeja, commended the NNS for the synergy in crime fighting in Lagos State.
Owohunwa said that the handing over of the suspects to the police, is a sign that security agencies operating in Lagos are united in crime fighting.
“We are taking the suspects for further investigation. We will track down those at large. This synergy is a continuous operation,” he said.
The five suspects and one boat engine were paraded before newsmen at Ikeja while the 11 x 1000L Geepee tanks with products suspected to be stolen crude oil were left in the custody of the NNS in Lekki, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported.