Ondo: JTF destroys crude oil-laden vessels after busting a bunkering racket

A cartel that was stealing crude oil from Chevron/NNPC rigs in the high seas off the coast of Ondo State was caught on Tuesday by the Joint Military Special Forces.

One of the top proponents of Niger Delta development, High Chief Bibopere Ajube, led the special combined military soldiers into the creeks with his Galaxy Security Services personnel and searched for the locations of the bunkering syndicate in the elephant grass.

Two giant boats used by the cartel for its unlawful operations were discovered at separate locations after being hidden underneath suspended raft dwellings on the island community of Awoye in the Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State thanks to Ajube’s axis orientation.

According to reports, the squad was able to find the oil rigs in the Atlantic Ocean’s I Ilaje Local Government Area where the gang had been stealing crude oil without permission.

They discovered that the metal supports of the rigs were clearly wet in crude oil that had spilled from the hose that the syndicate had been using when they arrived to the rigs designated CNL/NNPC JKT 1, CNL/NNPC JKT 2, CNL/NNPC JKT 9, and CNL/NNPC JKT 12.

The team hauled the two enormous boats from the Awoye settlement to a safe location once they came back from the sea, where they set them on fire and burned the contents inside.

While lamenting the activities of bunkering syndicate, Ajube who said the act had undermined the economy of the country stressed that “We are making efforts to stop bunkering in our state and in the Niger Delta as a whole, though this is tedious and requires a lot of fund to do in terms of fueling the boats and staying on water for several hours to checkmate the perpetrators.

“It is unfortunate that people engage in bunkering, a development which has drastically reduced the country’s earning and had forced the government to going into borrowing.

“On this discovery, we will have to inform the appropriate quarters to the rigs fixed with a view to preventing the perpetrators from continuing their illegal activities.”