A Federal High Court in Asaba, Delta State, has ordered the authorities of the Central Navy Command of the Nigerian Navy? to hand over two oil vessels seized along the waters of Bayelsa State for alleged involvement in the illegal lifting of crude oil from pipelines of oil firms.
According to the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Johnson Olutoyin, the two court orders directed that the sized vessels be released to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and for the illegal crude on board to be evacuated into two marine tankers.
The vessels, MT Hope and MT Vesky, were impounded some years back in the Niger Delta. A private firm, Fenix Impex Nigeria Limited, has however been approved to embark on the evacuation of the seized products.
Real Admiral Johnson Olutoyin, while speaking in Yenagoa during the handing over ceremony of the seized vessels to the Managing Director of Fenix Impex, Mr. Jarrett Tenebe, said MT Vesky was seized with over 50 metric tonnes of illegal refined diesel (AGO),while MT Hope contained unspecified quantity of crude oil that could not be ascertained.
Olutoyin told the officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, EFCC, Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian Navy present at the occasion that the court order was handed to the command by an official of the EFCC, Ade Haastrup, and directed officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) and DPR to assist in the evacuation of the products.