Yenagoa - Nigeria's military has arrested 21 Ghanians and five Nigerians for alleged oil theft as they operated two vessels in the country's main crude-producing region, authorities said on Tuesday.
The two vessels had a capacity of 650 000 metric tons of oil. A military spokesman said only one of the vessels was transporting oil at the time, but he could not give a figure for how much.
A joint military task force in the region "arrested 21international oil thieves and five Nigerians on board vessels MT Ani and MT Oso with 650 000 metric tons capacity of crude oil," said Lieutenant Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu.
"The 21 non-Nigerians were Ghanaians."
The arrests occurred on Monday in Nigeria's Rivers State and were said to have occurred after a tip-off. The vessels were destroyed afterward.
Oil theft has been a growing problem in Nigeria, and Shell chief executive Peter Voser said last month that there have been estimates that 150 000 barrels of oil and condensate is stolen in the country each day.
Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, has been producing between 2.0 and 2.4 million barrels per day in recent months. - Sapa-AFP
IOL News
they shudnt have said it as though they were only foreigners. Nigerians were ther too
this is just one out of many, they shouldn't just stop there, there are more. Nigeria is a world producer of crude and yet there is massive shortage of its products in the country, this is not new, we know this things happen and in some cases even those behind it