The Ogun State Police Command has arrested six suspected pipeline vandals in different areas of the state.
The suspects included four suspected militants said to be operating in the Ikorodu-Arepo areas.
The militants, who were arrested on Friday, are 40-year-old Pere Ugbozuwa, Audu Tony, 39; Ifeanyi Eze, 29; and Ojogo Ezekiel, 23.
Ugbozuwa was said to be the secretary of the militants.
According to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, the suspects are under interrogation at the headquarters of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad in Magbon, Abeokuta.
He said the suspects had made useful statements that would assist the officer-in-charge of SARS to carry out a thorough investigation and make more arrests.
Adejobi explained that the group had been linked to killings of security men and vandalising of pipelines in the Arepo area.
He said, “The special operation coordinated by the state Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, has led to the arrest of four leaders of the militant group that has been responsible for damaging of pipelines and other criminal acts in Arepo.
“The command deployed men from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Police Mobile Force, Safer Highway, and Anti-Crime teams from various sections of the command to attack the hoodlums in the creek with two Armoured Personnel Carriers.”
In a related development, operatives of the Quick Response Squad of the command arrested two suspected vandals, Olamilekan Akinyemi and Ramon Mudashiru, near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries’ Prayer City, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Saturday.
The Ford bus they brought to the scene with number plate, MUS 887 XF, loaded with 14 200-litre drums and several jerrycans of petrol were also reportedly impounded.
Adejobi said the CP vowed that the state would be hot for criminals, especially pipeline vandals, who were economic saboteurs reaping where they did not sow.
The police boss, at the Ibafo Police Division, reportedly told officers and men of the command deployed for a special operation in Arepo and other areas of the state, that vandals would no longer be allowed to stay in the state.
“He warned vandals who operate at Ogunmakin, Onimaalu, Ogere, Ibafo, Ijebu Ode, Simawa, and Ogijo, among others, to look for other legitimate business, as they would soon meet their Waterloo,” the police spokesman added.