20yr old lady arrested for pipeline vandalism

It is said that every day is for the thief but a day for the owner.

The law has caught up with a 20-year-old lady, Motunrayo Lateef, who is the leader of a gang of pipeline vandals that operate on the Ilado and Takwa Bay islands of the state, bursting pipelines and siphoning petroleum products as she has been arrested by the police in Lagos State, reports Punch.

Lateef and her gang members, Anthony Adebanjo and Ola Omosowome, were arrested by the Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, just as 118 jerrycans and two speedboats were recovered from them, when operatives of the task force raided their hideout in Agbagbotu, Ilado, while busy stealing fuel from a pipeline they had vandalised, belonging to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

But the lady who was paraded alongside the two men, denied being a member of the gang when she was interviewed.

“I am not into pipeline vandalism. I was passing through the area around 12am when the police arrested me. I did not know vandals were in the area.

I live in the Takwa Bay area and I was going to my house when the police arrested me.”

Anthony, an indigene of Igbokoda in Ondo State, said he was a speedboat driver for the vandals, and he was hired to transport the jerrycans to the location when the police arrested him.

“I drive the speedboat. I don’t break pipelines. It is the vandals who usually contract me to transport petroleum products for them. I never knew it was stolen fuel. I was arrested on the Igbelejo Island while transporting some jerrycans.

Omosowome and I were to take the jerrycans to the Agbabotu Island where they would be filled with fuel by vandals. I stay around the Apapa area. I told the police that I don’t have the names or contacts of the vandals I am working with.

Their jerrycans were usually at the Shore of Igbelejo Island, where we picked them up. We are not the vandals. Despite our explanations, the police would not let us go.”

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