The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps(NSCDC) in Delta State, says that it has Observed a significant reduction in the activities of petroleum products vandals particularly in the Niger Delta region.

According to a statement in Asaba by the Delta State Command of the Civil Defense Corps, the achievement was due to the proactive measure taken in recent times by the Commandant General Dr. Abubakar Audi-Ahmed and the leadership at the State Command ably led by Commandant Iskilu Akinsanya.

The spokesman of the State Command Emeka Peters Okwechime, maintained that the development was an improvement on an earlier report by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, which had pegged the amount of crude oil theft in 2021 at about Two Hundred Thousand barrels per day.

The report also noted that, the Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission had estimated the cost of the volume of stolen crude oil at over Three Billion Naira as at April 2022.

It also noted that the recently inaugurated Commandant General Special Intelligence Squad is instrumental to the achievement recorded, stressing that the unit has clamped down on illegal oil dumpsites, leading to the arrest of suspects and the seizure of several trucks conveying the products.

The statement went further that preliminary investigation and confessional remarks by the suspects have revealed the identities of some of the sponsors, adding that the names of perpetuators would be made public as a deterrent to others at the end of the investigation.