The Nigerian Navy (NN) Tuesday said 28 rice smugglers and 12 suspected oil thieves have been arrested by its personnel in the last seven days. This is just as it disclosed that scores of tanks and kegs as well as illegal refineries and boats have been destroyed by naval personnel in the period under review. Director Naval Information, Commodore Chris Ezekobe disclosed this in a statement.
He said that the arrest were as a result of the Force’ sustained clampdown on crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, smuggling and other illegal activities within the maritime domain. While 22 suspected smugglers were arrested by personnel attached to Nigeria Navy Ship (NNS) Makurdi; six of them were nabbed by operatives of the Western Naval Command (WNC) attached to the Forward Operations Base (FOB) Badagry.
