Eight barges carrying more than 100,000 litres of contaminated diesel were being smuggled in Rivers when the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Secure, seized them.
Vice Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, the JTF's commander, revealed this on Sunday in Bonny while showing reporters the captured barges and petroleum products.
He claimed that during a stop-and-search operation across multiple creeks, security forces detained the vessels carrying contaminated diesel.
Ferreira stated that the seizure was in keeping with the task forces' mandate to purge the Niger Delta of crude oil theft and criminality, which was represented by OPDS Maritime Component Commander, Commodore Adedokun Siyanbade.
In order to secure the complete elimination of crude oil theft, the seizures were carried out in accordance with instructions granted to OPDS by Gen. Christopher Musa, Chief of Defence Staff. After this instruction, the OPDS accelerated its activities, leading to the seizure of eight barges carrying suspected illegally processed automotive petrol oil (diesel). In total, the barges in the Bonny area of Rivers State contained about 100,000 litres of diesel stashed in various compartments, according to him.
He stated that no one had been detained, but that forces were currently pursuing the captured vessel's captain and crew.
-By Abimbola Adaku|thetransporteronline24|Nigeria
