Police have arrested suspected petroleum pipeline vandals, with over 33,000 litres of fuel in Ogun State, south-west Nigeria.
Parading the suspects, the Oyo State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Katsina, told reporters that the fuel scarcity had made petroleum products commodities of renewed interest to criminals.
Mr Katsina said that vandals were engaging in the illegal acts to sabotage the efforts of the government.
The Commissioner was speaking on Wednesday at a vandalism site along the border of Ogun State where the vandals had successfully scooped over 3,000 litres of petrol for sale at the black market.
The Command also got a clean break with the recovery of a 33,000 litres tanker containing engine oil which was snatched at gun point at the Ojo axis of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Katsina explained to Journalists that the latest arrests would encourage the Command to beam its searchlight on vandalism and high way robbery, especially of petroleum products which had been on the increase since the fuel scarcity started.
One of the suspects, Aiki ademola, told reporters that he got the link from a friend who had already supplied him twice in jerry cans, but this time the consignment was much larger as they came in with about 24 200 litres drums.
According to the tanker driver, the group of six men that highjacked the tanker wore military uniform and took the driver and two occupants of the truck away from Ibadan and dropped them in the middle of nowhere in Fiditi. They were dumped in the bush while they returned to Ibadan to sell the product.
The manager of the filling station claimed that he had no knowledge of the criminal means through which the product was sourced.
In the mean time, the Police said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) would be alerted to carry out necessary repair on the vandalised pipeline and that the command would intensify efforts to prevent saboteurs from peddling their inglorious trade in the state.