An oil bunkering vessel that had been detained in the Niger Delta’s creeks with stolen crude oil was destroyed yesterday by Nigerian Navy forces.
When the ship and its seven-person crew were detained last Thursday by agents from Tantita Security Services, one of the recently hired oil pipeline surveillance companies, it was discovered that crude oil was being put into the ship illegally.
The vessel with the registration number L85 B9.50 was allegedly carrying between 600 and 650 cubic meters of illegally lifted crude oil in five compartments at the time of detention.
At around 3 p.m., men of the Nigerian Navy set the ship afire on the Warri River after the ship’s skipper, Temple Manasseh, admitted that the vessel was indeed crude-laden when Tantita agents detained it.
“I was arrested in Escravos by Tompolo boys, but the alleged stolen crude oil was not loaded by me. My vessel was hijacked by some boys who forced the loaded crude into my ship. I don’t know the hijackers at all.
“But when Tompolo’s security operatives stormed the scene, they all ran away and abandoned their loading operation which had lasted about two and a half hours,” he said.
The Navy officers declined to comment, however Captain Warredi Enisuoh, a Marine intelligence consultant for Tantita Security Services, said that the arrest was the product of information gathering and said that Tantita agents “monitored the space through satellite.”
