The Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Wednesday said it had arrested two suspected pipeline vandals.
The two suspects – Hammed Soyele (35), and Sakiru Emida (55) – were arrested at Ajede Road, in Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state, a statement by the command's Public Relations Officer, Kareem Olanrewaju, said.
The corps said the two suspects were "operating with guns alongside others now at large."
Items recovered from them are, "two Dane guns, 325 litres of petrol loaded in a car, 25 50-litre empty kegs, an unregistered motorcycle, one Hyundai car with number plate Lagos-AS 745 SMK, and a pumping machine used for pumping fuel in to containers,"
The statement added, "The surveillance team deployed in the place by state Commandant, Aboluwaye Akinwande, to monitor the activities of vandals relayed the information, but the suspects took off before the arrival of our combat team.
"However, luck ran out on them when they were sighted by another surveillance team on routine patrol. The suspects were pursued and one of them was arrested at gun point on Ajede Road, Ogbere. In the course of our investigations, it was discovered that the suspects were members of a gang.
"Our investigators arrested the other suspect, Emida, at the gang's Ola Oluwa camp site near the NNPC pipeline."
The NSCDC spokesman said Soyele had confessed to committing the crime.
Soyele, according to the NSCDC spokesman, said, "I have been in the business for long and I do work with others, including Sakiru. We had had many operations in the past.'
The statement added that NSCDC was poised to "deal ruthlessly" with vandals.
Akinwande, it said, had charged the corps divisional officers to effectively monitor the areas under their jurisdiction to ensure that they were free from the threats posed by vandals.
