Navy Arrests Four Men For Allegedly Smuggling PMS On Sea

The Nigerian Navy has arrested four foreigners from Benin Republic and a Nigerian, for allegedly smuggling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), with the intention of moving it out of the country.

The suspects were about to move the 680 jerry cans from Lagos towards Seme, down to Republic of Benne when they were caught. They were intercepted by naval men attached to the Forward Operations Base (FOB), Badagry.

The four Benneniose are Wonu Kokoru (32), Afajinu Agbe (37), Asuma Friday (24), Towonu Oliye and the Nigerian, Samuel Fanuvi (45). The Commanding Officer (CO) of the Forward Operations Base (FOB), Badagry, Navy Captain Abdulhakeem Olushina Ojebode said: “We got a tip off that the suspects were moving from Lagos towards Seme to Cotonou Republic of Benin.

So, we swung into action; we deployed our patrol team and they intercepted the suspects at about four nautical miles from here. Having satisfied that these people were up to illegalities, because of the number of petroleum products they had, we tried to bring them ashore.

We were able to evacuate more than 400 jerry cans filled with fuel. They could not provide any useful information on how they came about the product. They only told us that they were taking the Jerry cans to Benin Republic.”

Ojebode described the action of the suspects as smuggling. He noted that the suspects would be handed over to the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), because Navy didn’t have power of prosecution.

Ojebode said that the jerry cans of fuel retrieved from the suspects were equivalent to 33,000litres, which could translate to between N5million and N10million. He added: “They can make as much as N10 million depending on where they disposed of it.

The quality of the product is not the one that could have been subjected to adulteration. When you sight or smell it, you’ll know the quality of the fuel.” Ojebode said that the arrest was the navy’s way of contributing to the federal government policy on smuggling, which was in line with the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok Ette Ibas’ directive.

The Area Commander, NSCDC of Lagos West Command, Mr. Musa Ajiboye said that after the handing over of the suspects, NSCDC would charge the suspects to the court for prosecution.

Ajiboye said: “The fuel will be given to the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC).” The Navy finally handed over the five suspected pipeline vandals, with 600 jerry cans PMS to NSCDC, Lagos State Command for investigation.

The Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Beecroft, Commodore Abraham Adaji, handed over the suspects to the NSCDC Commandant, Lagos State, Tajudeen Balogun. The suspects said that they collected the fuel from a village called Atlas Cove.

One of the suspects, Fanuvi, said that they were sent by their manager to assist sailors, who were conveying the petroleum product.

Fanuvi said: “I and Kokoru were arrested on the sea around 11am by some navy officials. The navy men were patrolling the sea. It was not up to two minutes we arrived the spot that our boat became faulty. We were later arrested.” Balogun said: “We are going to intensify our investigation and arrest those behind the business because what they did is economic saboteur.”