In what looks like a retaliatory arrest, operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, have arrested two police officers, alleged to be involved in bunkering and illegal distribution of petroleum products.
The arrest of the two police officers was sequel to the initial arrest of two senior operatives of the NSCDC by the Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on illegal petroleum bunkering.
The Point gathered that the arrested anti-riot policemen were three in number, but one of them, who fled the scene shortly after, was suspected to be the driver of their vehicle.
On sighting the NSCDC Task Force officials, the policeman was said to have left the vehicle conveying the illegal products while his identification card fell off as he took to his heels.
It was learnt that the identities of the two mobile policemen arrested by the NSCDC operatives were being protected, following the initial confusion that their arrest generated.
A dependable source at the Loius Edet House, Abuja, hinted that the arrest of the policemen took place on Friday last week, almost at the same point where the operatives of the NSCDC were earlier arrested, while conveying what later turned out to be exhibit, to an undisclosed destination.
“The vehicle, the officers and the petroleum products have been swiftly taken to our head office at Yenogoa,” the source disclosed.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Desmond Agwu, were not successful, as his mobile phone could not be reached as at press time.
Also, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Asinim Butswat , was unavailable. However, an officer in the PPRO’s office, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We heard it like any other person that about 412 litres of petroleum products were recovered from two anti-riot police officers.
Officially, our office has not been informed.” Two weeks ago, two operatives of the NSCDC were arrested by patrol police officers at a point along Otuasegba area of Yenogoa.
All efforts to reconcile the differences between the two security agencies were not successful.
Checks by The Point revealed that 350 litres of suspected illegal refined AGO in 15 sacks containing 25 litres each were impounded from them
The two arrested NSCDC officers, identified as Assistant Superintendent Agah Ovie and Assistant Superintendent Angel Kilosomawo, were said to have been caught on March 7, with multimillion naira worth of petroleum products, which they illegally refined at an undisclosed location.
Upon their arrest, the investigating police officers were caused to write a strong worded letter to the office of the state’s NSCDC commandant to which the police authority had yet to get a reply.
The two arrested NSCDC officers had during interrogation confessed that the vehicle with which they were conveying the petroleum products actually belonged to their Head of Department, one Lawrence Ndubuisi.
They confessed further that they were attached to the Critical Infrastructure Department, Bayelsa State Command. Checks by The Point revealed that 350 litres of suspected illegal refined AGO in 15 sacks containing 25 litres each were impounded from them.
Apparently angered by the development that led to the arrest of their colleagues, the NSCDC operatives, equally laid ambush for the policemen, who they also eventually caught in the act.
