Navy Seizes Boat With 800 Cans Loaded With Petrol

By Mohammed Adekola

The Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft Patrol Team in collaboration with the Forward Operating Base Badagry, has said they arrested a wooden boat with over 800 jerrycans of 30 litres Premium Motor Spirit, close to the boundary between Nigeria and Benin Republic.

In a statement signed on Monday by the NNS Beecroft Base Information Officer, Sub-Lieutenant H. A Collins, the arrest was made on Friday evening.

The statement quoted the Commander, Commodore Kolawole Oguntuga, as saying that the boat, which was sailing seaward 80 nautical miles from the shore, was intercepted by the NNS Beecroft Patrol Team in collaboration with the Forward Operating Base Badagry.

He said, “In a feat of maritime security prowess, under the ongoing Operation Water Guard, the Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft Patrol Team in collaboration with the Forward Operating Base Badagry, under the strategic leadership of the Commander Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft and Maritime Component Commander, Operation AWATSE, Commodore Kolawole Oguntuga, successfully intercepted a huge wooden boat, laden with over 800 jerricans of 30 litres each containing products suspected to be PMS.

“The boat was sailing seaward 80 nautical miles from the shore very close to the boundary between Nigeria and Benin Republic. The arrest was made in the late hours of Friday, January 19, 2024.”