If you live in Nigeria then you must be feeling the pinch one way or another over the current scarcity of fuel which has brought back long queues and ‘black market’ operators, with less than a month to the end of the incumbent administration.

But while Nigerians are grappling with the scarcity, the Joint Task Force, JTF, announced that it has recovered 4.2 million litres of crude oil allegedly stolen in the Niger Delta region.

According to a JTF team leader, Captain Sunday Olaleye, the oil was discovered after two vessels were arrested by Operation Pulo Shield, an anti-illegal bunkering and oil theft outfit of the JTF.

The first vessel was arrested in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State while the other was nabbed in Forcados, Warri waterways, in Delta State.

Olaleye explained that the team discovered that of the 10 compartments in the vessel arrested in Forcados, nine were filled with crude oil with each one containing 330,000 litres of crude oil big enough to fill a truck.

The Captain revealed that the arrests were made possible through a tip-off, adding that the two ships attempted to escape but for the quick response from his officers.

He said: “When you multiply 330,000 litres of crude oil by nine compartments, you have 2,970 million litres. That is for the ship that was intercepted around Forcados. Besides, the ship seized in Okrika region has four compartments filled with crude oil. When you multiply 330,000 litres of crude oil by four, you have 1.32 millon litres. Altogether, over 4.2 million litres of stolen crude oil was recovered in two separate operations carried out by JTF.

“Immediately we were informed that the ships were planning to escape, we swung into action. We arrested the ships. When we moved closer to the ship that was arrested around Forcados area, the sailors and other crude members escaped through a boat they snatched on the river.”