By Teddy Nwanunobi
Three trucks laden with suspected illegally refined petrol, which were apprehended last Friday in Bayelsa State by the taskforce of the Bayelsa Chapter of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), have been handed over to the State Police Command, IPMAN has said.
The cargo trucks, it would be recalled, were conveying the petrol packed in nylon bags suspected to be from a yet-to-be identified illegal refinery site before they were arrested by IPMAN’s taskforce.
According to the Bayelsa State Coordinator of IPMAN, Mr. Bello Bina, who confirmed the development, the association had informed the Commissioner of Police who directed that the suspects and the trucks be transferred to the Command.
The trucks, which disguised the products as flour bags, were seized along the Sagbama axis of the East-West Road.
Bina alleged that some unidentified policemen at the Sagbama Division tried to frustrate the efforts of the IPMAN taskforce by insisting that the products belonged to an influential personality.
He said that he was compelled to take the matter to the Bayelsa Commissioner of Police after turning down gratifications from the owners of the illegally refined products.
He assured that following the call by President Muhammadu Buhari to IPMAN to check pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft in the Niger Delta the effort of his Task Force to apprehend the tankers would not be compromised.
He said that proxies of the owner of the impounded products had offered gratifications to the taskforce which were turned down.
“Some Police officers at the Sagbama junction tried in vain to stop the arrest of the trucks conveying the products.
“According to them, a prominent businessman, with wide experience in the oil and gas sector, is the owner of the tankers, and that they are not willing to let us impound the tankers.
“This led us to contact the Commissioner of Police who ordered them to transfer the drivers and the trucks held at the Sagbama Divisional Police Headquarters to Yenagoa,” Bina said.