Eleven suspected pipeline vandals opposite the depot of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited at Apir, a suburb of Makurdi, Benue State capital, have been apprehended by the Anti-Vandal Unit of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Yakubu Ibrahim, the State Commandant of the corps, who disclosed this on Saturday, said that following an intelligence report, the command dispatched its team to the area opposite the NNPCL depot at Apir.
According to Ibrahim, the team discovered an illegal vandalization of an NNPCL pipeline, also known as the Yola line, at the location.
Ibrahim explained that the eleven persons were apprehended at the crime site and would be taken for questioning and profiling. While describing the activities of the vandals as an “act of terrorism,” the commandant further explained that the destruction, which stretches over 10km, was an economic sabotage.
The commandant said, “This is my first time; I’ve never seen a thing like this before. It’s disheartening that these excavated pipelines, which may have cost so much, would be sold for a pittance, indicative that the well-being of the Nigerian people was never in their consideration.”
He expressed sadness over what he described as a conspiracy of silence by the residents and traditional rulers of the community near the scene of the incident and promised to investigate if they were found complicit.
He enjoined the people of the state to be more vigilant and more conscious of activities in their environment, stressing that the items recovered at the site were the vandals’ working equipment, with 16 cut pipelines.
Men of the Benue State Community Volunteer Guards, in late April 2024, arrested two pipeline vandals in Yakyor, Apir, a suburb of Makurdi. According to Joseph Har, the Special Adviser to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Security and Internal Affairs, the culprits were trailed and arrested at the weekend after they had sold the first batch of the loot for N400,000 and shared the money.