By Francesca Hangeior

The Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base (FOB), Ibaka has arrested three suspected oil thieves carrying a boat containing crude oil worth N32 million in the state.

The Commanding Officer of the Base, Capt. Uche Aneke disclosed this while handing over the suspects and seized items to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Akwa Ibom Command on Thursday at Ibaka.

Aneke said the suspects were arrested on Tuesday, at about 09:05a.m following an intelligence report about the activities of suspected criminals involved in crude oil theft within the Navy’s area of operations.

“The necessary support of FOB Ibaka, the Tantita team intercepted and arrested the suspected criminals with a wooden boat discovered to be laden with about 60,000 liters of product suspected to be stolen crude oil.

“Other items recovered from the suspects included outboard engines and a pumping machine.

“Notably as at the time of arrest, the wooden boat had a total of three crew members (all Nigerians).

“The vessel was discovered to have 11 Geepee tanks which were loaded with about 60,000 litres of suspected stolen crude oil, the product was overloaded from offshore Ibeno in Akwa Ibom,” Aneke said.

He warned individuals or groups planning to carry out any form of criminality in Nigerian waters or smuggling illegal consignments into or out of Nigeria’s waters, to desist immediately.

Aneke reaffirmed the Navy’s commitment to combating maritime crimes in the state under the leadership of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla.

He said that criminal elements in FOB Ibaka Area under the Eastern Naval Command Area of Responsibility would continue to be detected using advanced surveillance equipment and intelligence.

Receiving the seized items and suspects, Mr Adetona Taiwo, Extractive Industry Fraud Section, Uyo Zonal Directorate, said the commission would further investigate and possibly prosecute the suspects.

By Francesca Hangeior

Nigeria has, for the ninth time in 2024, been thrown into darkness following the collapse of the national power grid.

A check by Vanguard on the official X page of the Nigeria National Grid (@NationalGridNg) revealed an official statement signed by the JosDisco, Head of Corporate Communications, Dr. Friday Adakole.

The post read: “The current outage being experienced within our franchise states is a result of a loss of power supply from the national grid. The loss of power supply from the national grid occurred this morning at about 11:28 AM on Thursday, 7th November 2024, hence the loss of power supply on all our feeders.

“We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid supply is restored to normalcy. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to serve you better.”

The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) also confirmed the latest collapse in a message to customers.

The DISCO said: “Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 07 November 2024, at 11:29 hiours, affecting supply within our network.”

IKEDC assured customers that efforts to restore power are underway in collaboration with key stakeholders, though no timeline was provided.

“Restoration of supply is ongoing. Kindly bear with us,” the company added.

By Francesca Hangeior

The Defence Headquarters has confirmed the emergence of a new terrorists group known as ‘Lukarawas’, exacerbating insecurity in the northwestern part of Nigeria.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, made this known while briefing newsmen on the operations of the military on Thursday in Abuja.

Buba said that the new terror group emerged from the Republic of Niger after the coup that led to the breakdown of military cooperation between Nigeria and Niger.

He said that the terrorists began incursion into northern parts of Sokoto and Kebbi States from the Niger Republic and Mali axis, particularly after the coup in Niger Republic.

According to him, before the coup, there were joint border operations with Nigerien security forces, which kept the terrorists at bay.

“The terrorists took advantage of the gaps in cooperation between both countries and exploited difficult terrains to make incursions in remote areas in some North Western states to spread their ideology,” he said.

Buba said that the group was accommodated by the locals, who initially thought that the group meant well for them, adding that they failed to report the movement to the military and security agencies.

He gave assurance that troops had sustained intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to degrade the terrorists.

He added that the terror group had continued to take advantage of the vast under-governed areas to hide and evade troops as well as harass the locals.

According to him, troops are locating them and eliminating the threat.