GOC, 81 Division nabs 11 suspects over alleged siphon of fuel

By Ifeoma Ikem

The General Officer Commanding, GOC, 81 Division, Nigerian Army on Wednesday nabbed 11 suspects over alleged siphon of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol in Ogun state.

Some of the suspects are: Oluwafemi Mukaila, 43, Usman Abdulahi, 41, Yusuf Musa, 28, Usman Garuba, 30, Mudasiru Idris, 27, Ismail Isa, 28, Samson Philips,23, Yusuf Rahaman, 35, and John Idris 20, among others.

One of the suspects, confessed that he was picked up at Ogere area, Arepo, Ogun state by some persons to load garri for them from a warehouse.

According to the suspect, ‘we negotiated for N300 for each bag of garri without knowing it was fuel , instead of garri which they told us earlier.

“I was surprised when we got to the warehouse, we discovered that it was fuel packed inside jumbo sack bags that looked exactly like Garri.

” When we discovered it was not garri, we got angry, but since we are already there we didn’t have any other option than to carry the fuel, we took the risk to load the two trucks and a bus.

“Throughout the loading there was no food no and no water (for us)”.

He said that if there was any fire out break it would have been the end of their lives, adding ‘it’s poverty that push me to this problem’.

“Immediately we finished loading the truck, as we were about stepping out of the warehouse, we saw some soldiers, we greeted them, only for them to tell us we are under arrest”.

Illegal bunkering by vandals has been rife in some places like Ogere and Arepo areas of Ogun State, but these 11suspects would appear to have run out of luck