By Egufe Yafugborhi

THE Nigerian Navy in Delta state have released, from their custody, twenty one oil theft suspects after their cooperation over investigations aided arrest of three sponsors connected with the crimes for which they had been arrested. Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS, Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed who disclosed this yesterday at the Warri Naval Base described those released as “foot soldiers” earlier held in place of the kingpins now in custody.

The NNS Commander spoke after the Flag Officer Commanding Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, led the press in Warri on inspection of yet another massive ship, MT Eyuwa, caught with 670 (100 truck load) metric tonnes of crude oil in Forcados River, Burutu local government area, Delta state.

Mohammed said, “We are often faced with the challenge of catching the very evasive kingpins after apprehending the foot soldiers, usually crew members caught in the oil stealing vessels. Having cooperated and aided us in arresting the kingpins, we had to release them the foot soldiers.

“However, the context of release here does not mean they are free from prosecution. There is a process likened to bail granted by the police. We have responsible people who sign to take responsibility and make them available for further investigation when the need arise.”

He further disclosed that between October 26 2015 till the time of filing this report, his command has recovered 4200metric tonnes of stolen crude from impounded ships, a separate 955metric tonnes destroyed along with 18 arrested Cotonou boats while 221.1 metric tones diesel and 7.8 of kerosine have also been seized from oil thieves.