Commander of Operation Delta Safe, Sector 4 Col. B. O. Amakor has confirmed the destruction of 500 drums of adulterated diesel which were seized from smugglers in Jebs community in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State.
He confirmed this weekend when his men stormed the location upon information from the locals about the resumption of bunkering activities in the area.
“Some suspects were arrested and after our preliminary investigations some of the people who were being used as labourers to offload the products were apprehended and we have handed them over to the relevant agencies for prosecution and some of them were released because they were not found wanting,” he said.
He said that the smugglers usually smuggled the petroleum products from neighbouring states into the state and that in the present instant upon sighting them, they had absconded leaving behind the drums of diesel alongside two cars.
“The location they are coming from we could not ascertain that because the owners of these products abandoned it and fled when our troops came, but we arrested them in Calabar South. They passed through the creeks and entered the state through Calabar south, Jebs Area, precisely.
He said Operation Delta Safe is doing its best to ensure the dominance of the area particularly the waterways “by way of patrol and our gunboats are always moving round the area making sure that we deter these smugglers from perpetuating these acts.”
