Police Raid Illegal Refineries

The Police in Abia on Monday, raided illegal refineries at Ezendioma Community in Ukwa East Local Government Area of the state.

Alhaji Bala Hassan, the state’s Commissioner of Police who made this known to newsmen in Aba said, he personally supervised the raid.

He commended the Aba Area Police Command for arresting 40 people and seizing six vehicles as well as 148 jerry cans of 50 litres each used in the illegal refinery.

The suspects were paraded at the Aba Area Police Command after the raid in the community.

Hassan explained that the Area Commander in Aba, Alhaji Rabiu Dayi, got information that some miscreants were in the habit of distilling crude oil into diesel and other products in Ukwa.

“He mobilised his men from the Area Command and some men of the anti-terrorist squad to effect the arrest of the suspects.

“I think this is a recent occurrence here, illegal refining of petroleum products used to be rampant in the Niger Delta region before most of such facilities were discovered and destroyed.

According to him, investigation has just started and the police will make sure that other suspects are arrested to face the law.

The police commissioner urged people in the state to be vigilant and to call the police on their emergency numbers if they suspected wrong moves around their environment.

“There are local refineries in the state using the same procedure being used in conventional refineries, however, we are definitely going to get their sponsors and destroy these facilities.

“The scale is very big and we just have to do something fast before it gets to other communities,” Hassan said.

Mr. Shedrack Chinedu, one of the suspects, said he went there to observe things when he was arrested.

He admitted that it was against the law of the land to refine crude oil illegally.

“We buy the crude oil from Akwete people, the crude is being brought from Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states to us for refining.

Personally, I don’t believe it is a stolen product, because crude is openly sold on the waterways and if you go there now, you’ll see the tanks there,” Chinedu stated.