IGP Special Task Force Arrests Four, Impounds Oil-Laden Barge In Port-Harcourt
Four suspects were on 10th June 2022 arrested by the Inspector-General of Police Special Task Force on Petroleum and Illegal Bunkering (IGP-STFPIB) at Slaughter Area of Trans Amadi, Port Harcourt.
The IGP-STFPIB team also intercepted a seagoing 12-compartments barge known as “Rainbow-I” with Registration No. 8765432 laden with about Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) reasonably suspected to be illegally refined.
A statement by CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) said preliminary investigations as well as analysis carried out on the samples by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority based in Port Harcourt, confirm that the product is adulterated, and therefore unfit for sale to the public.
The Inspector-General of Police, therefore, warns all economic saboteurs to cease forthwith their criminal activities or else the long arm of the law will catch up with them. The IGP equally tasked personnel of the IGP-STFPIB to be steadfast in discharging their responsibilities.
Earlier, the Inspector-General of Police, (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba warned that there would be severe sanctions for criminal elements who engage in activities such as illegal bunkering and illegal refining of oil products, which are capable of sabotaging the economy of the country.
The IGP equally charged members of special teams set up to monitor, investigate, apprehend, and prosecute purveyors of these crimes to renew their offensive against crimes and criminality, and professionally shun all manner of corruption so that offenders would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
