Lagos – The Nigerian Navy on Friday said it had impounded a wooden boat laden with 27 jerry cans of stolen petrol from suspected pipeline vandals at the Atlas Cove area of Lagos.
The authorities said that the seizure was made on Thursday night after the vandals abandoned the boat on sighting a naval team and fled into the bush to evade arrest.
Commodore Abraham Adaji, Commander of NNS BEECROFT, which carried out the operation, told journalists that the navy was determined to rid the country’s waterways of oil thieves and vandals.
”We are also in partnership with local authorities that are closest to where these assets are and who are the first to know if anything is going on,” he said.
Adaji said that the navy was “fully equipped and ready to fight to an end, pipeline vandalism and oil theft’’, adding that the Chief of Naval Staff had zero tolerance for maritime offences.
He warned perpetrators of illegal acts to seek legitimate means of livelihood. (NAN)