The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested nine suspects for engaging in illegal oil activities in a forest boundary between Rivers and Abia.

A statement by the Corps Spokesperson, Babawale Afolabi, on Thursday in Abuja stated that the arrest was made by the Commandant General's Special Intelligence Squad (CGSIS) following an intelligence tip-off.

He said that the suspects were arrested for their alleged involvement in pipeline vandalism, operation of illegal oil refineries, and crude oil theft.

"They were caught in the act of illegally refining stolen crude extracted from a vandalised oil well head.

"In addition, was the discovery of well-constructed illegal refineries where crude is being syphoned through vandalised well heads with large hoses connected to transmit crude to cooking ovens.

"The ovens have the capacity to produce 60,000 litres of crude at once," he said.

Afolabi added that the site occupied over 15 modular ovens with four fabricated reservoirs and 30 pits dug out to store processed Automative Gas Oil (AGO).

According to him, exhibits recovered from the sites included; generator set, pumping machines, metal and plastic buckets, cutlasses, saws, welding machines, galvanised metal pipes, different heavy-duty hoses, AGO illegally processed in cooking ovens, among others.

The spokesperson said that investigation is ongoing to discover the sponsors of the suspects as well as unravel the level of involvement of each of the suspects.

"At the end of our thorough investigation, the suspects will be charged to court to serve as deterrents to others.

"Previous and ongoing operations show the relentless determination of the Corps to salvage the nation's economy from saboteurs of illegal petroleum dealings," Afolabi said. (NAN)