Five people have been arrested for allegedly hijacking a tanker in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The suspects, dressed in fake military uniform, reportedly hijacked a tanker filled with 31,000 litres of engine oil at Agbowo Express in Ibadan.
But the tanker and its contents were recovered by the police, when the consignment was being offloaded at a fuel station at Ogungbade, on the Ibadan-Ife Expressway.
The driver, Yusuf Lukman, with registration number KWARA FUF-162XA, told The Nation that he loaded the tanker at Flour Mills Depot in Lagos and was taking the consignment to Ilorin in Kwara State.
Lukman said: “I was attacked at Agbowo Express on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. I work with Mannabis Ventures Ilorin.
“At Agbowo Express, a car was parked in the middle of the road. They were six and four of 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 drove the tanker away from the scene. I escaped when we go to Oyo and came to Ibadan immediately, where I reported the matter to the police.
“I loaded at the Flour Mills Depot in Lagos and was going to Ilorin. The way bill was in the truck and they hijacked it with the bill.”
The station manager, Tunde Oyebamiji, said his assistant handled the transaction, adding that the transaction started last Thursday.
The Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Katsina, said: “This is a case of highway robbers. It has been a very big problem for us and we thank God that the change in strategy has now led to this very important achievement.
“We have got the dossiers of the hijackers. The military uniforms they wore were fake. They were never military officers. They did that to deceive the public.
“The owner of the station has been arrested, their informant has been arrested and those at large, wherever they are, I will get at them anytime, anywhere.”