Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Cross River Command has impounded 16,000 litres of petroleum products.
This was in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Victory and Sector 4, Operation Delta Safe.
The state commandant, Samuel Fadeyi confirmed to Journalists in Calabar that they were stolen and stored in different trailer parks in the state.
Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) or better known as diesel stored in drums and gallons was the main product stolen.
He, however, said the perpetrators were at large.
Fadeyi explained that they had to embark on the search when the Commandant General of NSCDC, directed that impoundment should be carried out.
“We went round trailer parks in the state and discovered that hawkers indeed had a lot of petroleum products stored in drums and hidden.
“As we know, the storage of petroleum products was a highly regulated field and required a license for anyone to go into it because of the danger it could pose to the society if not properly handled.”
He said the discovery of the stolen products was in the last two weeks.
“So far, we have impounded about 16,000 litres of AGO from different spots in the state.
“Some of the places we went to, we met a lot of hostilities. So we made sure that we destroyed the capacity of the perpetrators from continuing in the business and quickly exit the area to avoid human casualties.”
According to him, some of these hawkers work like cartels. Once they see security officials they attack them.
Fadeyi said he has invited the leadership of the parks and their unions for a meeting to avert the negative impact on their integrity.
Much of the smuggled petroleum products are moved to Cameroon.