Suspected oil thieves kill one, raze houses in Bayelsa

DPR warns marketers against hoarding fuel

Suspected pipeline vandals and oil thieves yesterday attacked Korokorosei community in Southern Ijaw Local Council of Bayelsa State killing one person and injuring several others.

Four houses were also razed.The vandals were on a reprisal attack following the arrest of three of their members by a combined team of the Joint Military Task Force code-named Operation Delta Safe and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

They were arrested over their alleged involvement in the December, 2016 attack on Ogbienbiri-Tebidaba trunkline operated by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC).

The incident made many to flee to neighbouring communities just as some of them called on the security agencies to quickly come to their rescue. Korokorosei is the community of the speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Kombowei Benson.

The armed men, numbering over 12, were said to have attacked the community in the early hours of yesterday, shooting and killing one Erelayefa, who brazenly engaged them.

They also shot and injured two pupils of the community primary school.It was gathered that members of the oil and gas committee in the area were not left out in the attack just as the home of the coordinator of the task force and three others were set ablaze over their involvement in the arrest of their colleagues.

A source said security agents had earlier visited Korokorosei in search of the suspects. They held elders, youths and women in the community on Monday and urged them to assist in apprehending the suspects.

Police sources said three of the suspected vandals have been arrested. Two suspects are with the NSCDC while one is in the custody of the Joint Military Task Force.

The spokesman to the Bayelsa State Police Command, Butwat Astimin, said the details of the clash in Korokorose were being awaited.Meanwhile, officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have warned independent marketers in Kaduna against causing artificial fuel scarcity in the state. Their warning followed the appearance of long queues of motorists in filling stations across Kaduna metropolis and its environs.

The DPR attributed the petrol scarcity, which resurfaced in the state on Tuesday, to alleged hoarding of the petroleum products by independent marketers.

Filling stations in Kaduna shut their businesses to motorists as petrol attendants claimed to have run out of stock.A visit to some of the petrol stations by officials of the DPR showed that marketers were hoarding the product by refusing to sell to members of the public.

At the petrol stations visited by The Guardian along Ahmadu Bello Way, Waff Road and Ali Akilu Road, only one or two pumps out of eight points were dispensing fuel to motorists.