From Tade Oludayo, Ibadan
Nemesis caught up with some people that specialise in hijacking fuel tanker on the highways.
The latest are 5 persons, who wore fake military uniform and hijacked a tanker filled with 31,000 litres of engine oil at Agbowo Express in Ibadan.
They successfully snatched the tanker but the tanker and its content were recovered by men of the Oyo State police command, when the consignment was being offloaded at a fuel station at Ogungbade, along Ibadan-Ife Express.
The driver of the hijacked truck, Yusuf Lukman, told newsmen that he loaded the tanker at Flour Mills Depot in Lagos and was taking the consignment to Ilorin in Kwara State before he was attacked at Agbowo Express, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ibadan.
“At Agbowo Express, a car was parked at the middle of the road. They were six and four among them wore military uniform. They stopped me and asked me to park. They were angry, asking if I wanted to crush them with the truck. I apologised. Before I knew what was happening, they bundled me into their car and drove me to Oyo town. Some of them also drive the tanker away from the scene.
“I escaped when we go to Oyo town and I came to Ibadan immediately, where I reported the matter to the police.”I loaded at the Flour Mills in Lagos and was going to Ilorin. The Way Bill was in the truck and they hijacked it with the bill.”
Manager of the fuel station, Tunde Oyebamiji, where the tanker was recovered said his assistant at the station handled the transaction, adding that the transaction started last week Thursday.
The Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mohammed Katsina, also told newsmen that it was a case of highway robbery who attacked and tied the driver of the tanker.
According to him, the hijackers wore fake military uniforms as camouflage to deceive members of the public ‎while the owner of the petrol station where the hijacked fuel was being offloaded has also been arrested.
