Police
Officers of the Nigerian Police Force‘s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have discovered two illegal oil wells in Ejigbo , Lagos state.
These wells, linking to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) have been used to siphon petroleum products by the owners for years.
The wells, located at No 2 and No. 4 Suprise Avenue Ejigbo are believed to belong to suspects, Shafe Abayomi and Victoria Ogunsomi who have been arrested by the IRT led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Some residents of the area alerted the police of these illegal activities and expressed their concerns about how this was a threat to their collective safety as the suspects not only tapped Petroleum but stored it in tankers and jerrycans.
According to the Police, the suspects had 75 foot wells in their compounds that were connected to an NNPC pipeline a few meters away from their homes.
These wells were connected to the NNPC pipelines with pumping machines that helped them steal the petroleum products.
Victoria and Shafe have made millions from this and the resident whistleblowers shared that after pumping Petrol into the tankers, big truck would come by in the night to carry it away.
The Intelligence Response Team acting on this information raided the suspects’ houses and nabbed Mrs. Ogunsomi with jerrycans of petrol.
Mr. Abayomi on the other hand had swiftly dismantled his pumps and pipes before the police got to him but there was a stench of fuel.
Both suspects denied being pipeline vandals but regularly took the fuel that flowed to their wells from the burst NNPC pipeline.
During her interrogation, Victoria divulged that her late husband dug that well in 1999 and down the line, they discovered that there was petrol mixed with water in it.
She added that she had reported the case to NNPC and sent two delegates to take samples but that was the last they heard of them. According to her,
“I have been arrested before because I sold just three jerry cans of this petrol to someone by SARS operatives in 2016, the police released me and warned me never to go close to the well again. I am sorry that I went to it again and I was arrested “
Ogunsomi and Abayomi are in police custody as investigations are ongoing to apprehend their customers.