We’d have made N1.3m from selling stolen petrol in Benin Republic – suspects

Four suspected pipeline vandals that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Lagos State Command, said it arrested last Thursday while they were attempting to smuggle 130 jerry cans of premium motor spirit (petrol) into Benin Republic had confessed they would have made a sum of N1.3 million as profit from the sale of the product if their operation had been successful.

The suspects, were Sunday Akpnoundje, 32; Enoch Soke, 25; Albert Kouwonou, 25; and Marcel Evessehuo, 24. They were arrested on the Idale sea, Badagry.

The suspects, in their confessional statement, denied being pipeline vandals but admitted that they bought the petrol from vandals who scooped petroleum products from sea pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Akpnoundje disclosed that he and his colleagues bought the fuel at N2,500 per 25-litre jerry can from the vandals and they would have sold each jerry can for not less than N10,000 in Benin Republic.