Five suspects arrested for illegal oil bunkering escaped from NSCDC cell in Kogi

The Kogi State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has detained some of its officers on duty when five suspects arrested for illegal oil bunkering escaped from detention.

The state Commandant of the agency, Samuel Maigari, who confirmed this to our correspondent on Tuesday, vowed to fish out those behind the jailbreak.

Our correspondent gathered that five suspects – Hassan Sani, Auwal Mohamed, Mohamed Mustapha, Mudashiru Abubakar and Ibrahim Rabiu – were arrested by the anti-vandals unit of the NSCDC for pipeline vandalisation along the Abuja-Lokoja Road last Thursday.

They were said to have successfully carried out the crime and were ferrying the products to the North in two big trucks when they were intercepted by operatives of the anti-vandals unit.

On interrogation, they reportedly confessed that the products, which consisted of petrol, diesel and kerosene, were stolen.

They were said to have been detained for further investigations at the state command office at Lokoja.

However, by the following morning, the five suspects reportedly disappeared from the cell.

A source told our correspondent that there was a notorious syndicate in the command which usually collected bribes from suspects and aided their escape.

He said, “Those suspects could not have escaped on their own without the help of the officers because the wall of the cell is so high that it will be difficult to break.

“Only a small portion of the cell was broken, but we suspect that the main door was opened at night for their escape because that portion, we believe, is too narrow for any human being to pass through.

“We understand that one of the suspects in the cell gave a phone number of a certain fellow, who in turn reached out to some of our men, who facilitated their escape.”

It was gathered that the guard in charge of the cell was drunk on the night of the incident

The commandant, however, said he was not aware of any syndicate in the command or anyone who collected bribes to facilitate the escape of suspects.

• The PUNCH.