3,600 litres of fuel has been recovered by the Lagos State Police Command from suspected pipeline vandals in the Aquatira area, 1st Avenue by 12 Road, in the FESTAC area of the state.
According to SUNDAY PUNCH, the suspect upon sighting the police operatives fled the scene on a canoe.
A police source reported that the vandals always pumped fuel in the area at night adding that the fuel was always stored in polythene bags which could contain as much as 150 litres.
The source continued that: “They are pipeline vandals. There is a pipe that passed through a canal at FESTAC, buried deep in the waters. The vandals go down inside the canal, loosen the pipe, connect a hose to it and pump the fuel into a tanker. But we have been monitoring them and we always arrest the tankers.
The Police source added that: “Because we have become used to their system, they devised another method. They get big polythene bags that can take as much as 150 litres of fuel. They load the bags with 100 litres of fuel so that they will not burst. After loading them with fuel, they put them into sacks and tie the sacks together. They put the sacks on the canal, but they are three-quarter buried inside the water and will not be visible to the eye,
“When their boat comes, they hook the sacks and take them to wherever they need them. But on the day of the incident, we intercepted them and immediately they saw us in our vehicle, they fled in their boat. We called the Marine Police to help us bring out the fuel.”
The Police source said the recovered fuel will be kept as exhibit and auctioned after a court order has been obtained.
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