Navy hands over seized oil vessel, crew to EFCC | Nairalaw

…arrests eight suspects with stolen fuel in A’Ibom

The Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy, on Monday,
handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission an oil
vessel, MT AYSU, which it seized in Calabar, the Cross River State
capital.

The vessel and five crew members were handed over to officials
of the EFCC by the Commander of NNS Victory, Commodore Julius
Nwagu.

Nwagu said, “We are here to hand over the vessel, MT AYSU. It
was nominated to lift sludge from the Warri refinery, which it did,
but failed to deliver it to Titan Projects in Port Harcourt,
thereby contradicting the approval by the naval headquarters and
the Department of Petroleum Resources.

“The vessel had another approval to load and discharge low fuel
pour oil to a tank farm in Calabar, but brought a product that was
off specification and not acceptable.

“Based on that, the naval headquarters directed that the vessel
should be impounded and handed over to the EFCC.”

He added that the vessel, which was arrested on January 31,
2019, was conveying 1,500 metric tonnes of cargo though it had the
capacity to convey 8,000 metric tonnes.

While receiving the vessel and the crew members, the acting
Zonal Head of the EFCC in Cross River State, Alex Ebbah, said, “We
are going to investigate and prosecute the suspects.”

Earlier, Nwagu had handed over three suspected rice smugglers to
the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service along with 190 bags
of parboiled rice worth over N3m seized from the suspects.

The suspects were identified as Bassey Edet, Sunday Okon and
Okon Asuquo Akan.

They were received by the officer in charge of the Eastern
Marine Command of the NCS, Assistant Comptroller of Customs Jike
Johnson, who promised to prosecute the suspects.

The rice was allegedly being smuggled from Cameroon to Oron when
it was intercepted.

Also, on Monday, the Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Naval
Command, Rear Admiral David Adeniran, inaugurated some projects on
the NNS Victory premises in Calabar.

Some of the projects are a sickbay, tailoring shop, office
accommodation and salute dais on the parade ground, among
others.

The Forward Operating Base, Nigerian Navy, Ibaka in the Mbo
Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, says it has arrested
eight suspected oil thieves and seized 501 drums of illegal
Automotive Gas Oil worth about N35m.

It said the suspects were arrested with three Yamaha outboard
engines on Friday, April 5, 2019, based on intelligence
reports.

The acting Commanding Officer, FOB, Navy Captain Reginald Adoki,
disclosed this on Monday in Ibaka, while handing over the suspects
and the seized items to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.

He said the suspects were intercepted while conveying a boat
loaded with the AGO brought in from Oyorokoto in Rivers State along
the Calabar Channel leading to Oron.

Adoki described the activities of the suspects as an economic
sabotage, which the Nigerian Navy was committed to stamping out,
adding that the handover of the suspects and items to the EFCC was
a sign of the navy’s confidence in the commission.

“We have strong evidence that there was a case of conveying
illegally refined AGO, which had definitely been lifted from broken
pipes by way of crude oil theft, because you need crude oil to
refine to be able to get the illegal AGO. This is a clear case of
economic sabotage,” he stated.

Receiving the drums of the product, the suspects and other items
from the navy, the Uyo Zonal Head of the EFCC, Abdulkarim Chukkoh,
who was represented by Alex Ebbah, said, “I want to sincerely, on
behalf of the EFCC and my chairman, thank the Nigerian Navy for
this noble job.”