The Nigerian Navy has arrested 13 suspected crude oil thieves on board Motor Tanker (MT) Sweet Miri off the coast of Nigerian waters.
The Flag Officer Commanding, FOC, Western Naval Command, Rear Adm. Mohammed Hassan, confirmed the arrest to newsmen on Saturday.
He said that the motor tanker was filled with almost two million litres of products suspected to be crude oil and had no naval approval onboard.
The FOC, who is also the Commander, Joint Task Force Operation Awase, South West, said thorough investigations to ensure that kingpins of crude oil theft were brought to book would be conducted.
According to him, the launch of Operation Delta Sanity by the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Emmanuel Ogalla had further spurred naval men towards fighting crude oil theft with more vigour.
“On February 15, our radar detected a dark ship, as far as 174 Nautical Miles off the coast of Nigeria heading westward towards Republic of Benin.
“We dispatched Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Aba to go and investigate the contact; we subsequently followed the investigation by dispatching NNS Sokoto to double-up the search and interdiction.
“MT Sweet Miri, is a vessel that has been on the watch list of the Nigerian Navy for some time and has been arrested for suspicion of crude oil theft,” the FOC said.
