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The Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has arrested a Marine Vessel, MV Cecilia, laden with about 350,000 litres of petroleum product suspected to be diesel.

The Commander, Operation Delta Safe, (OPDS), Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferrera, disclosed this, yesterday, in Port Harcourt

According to Ferrera, the vessel was used as a storage tank for illegal refined products.

Represented by the maritime component commander of the Joint Task Force for South-South of the Operation Delta Safe, Navy Commodore Adedokun Siyanbade, Ferrera said, as part of the efforts at optimising and ensuring that the mandate of the OPDS are actualised, the Commander Joint Taskforce South South of OPDS directed the NNS Pathfinder based on credible intelligence to conduct a convert operation in the area.

He said the intelligence was based on the fact of illegality going on within the area. The operation, which was conducted on August 15, 2023, led to the arrest of MV Cecilia with a vessel that ought to be a service vessel, but has been converted to storage tanks for illegally refined products suspected to be Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).

He said the suspects as well as the vessel and products would be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.

Also speaking, the Commander of NNS Pathfinder, Port Harcourt, Desmond Igbo, said the arrest of the vessel was in line with the Chief of Naval Staff directive to take the fight to the camp of criminal elements sabotaging Nigeria economy.