The Nigeria Army foiled an attempt to transport approximately 16,000 liters of adulterated diesel to be sold to unsuspecting users in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday.

The illegally refined diesel was cleverly concealed inside 80 drums and had an estimated street value exceeding N14 million.

The Commander of the 6 Division Garrison in Port Harcourt, Brigadier General Eddie Effiong, presented the confiscated truck and its illicit petroleum cargo to the media.

The interception occurred on Sunday when army troops, conducting a routine security checkpoint along Okporowo Road in Ahoada East Local Government, successfully arrested the truck and its illegal cargo.

The operation has likely saved the unsuspecting public from being exposed to potentially harmful and substandard diesel fuel.

“This arrest reveals another dimension of illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta, devised by oil thieves to deceive unsuspecting security personnel on routine duty.

“Normally, illegally refined products are conveyed in tanker trucks but this seizure shows that they are now transporting illicit products via container trucks meant for goods.

“Ordinarily, if this adulterated diesel was in a tanker truck, it would have been easily detected. This shows the extent to which people go to commit crime.”

He mentioned that the counterfeit diesel was cleverly packaged in a way that could readily mislead security personnel at checkpoints into believing that the truck was transporting legitimate goods or frozen foods.

“But our troops acting on credible information laid an ambush for the truck, and on opening it; they found 80 carefully arranged drums laden with illegally refined diesel.

“We want them (oil thieves) to understand that as they are devising new methods that we equally devise our own means to catch them.

“Henceforth, if drivers of trucks are stopped on the road for searching, they shouldn’t get angry, because everything now can be used to convey illegally refined petroleum products,” he added.

Effiong, holding the position of Commander for Sector 3 in Operation Delta Safe Military Joint Task Force, stated that no arrests were effected during the incident of the seizure.

He mentioned that upon spotting the army checkpoint ahead of them, the individuals occupying the truck chose to abandon their vehicle and flee into the nearby bush, evading capture.