Army foils oil theft at Dangote refinery supply lines, 15 arrested in midnight raid

Nigerian Army troops arrested 15 suspected oil thieves in a coordinated midnight operation around the Ibeju-Lekki axis of Lagos State, stopping an attempt to tap crude oil supply lines linked to the Dangote Refinery.

According to an operational report, the suspects were intercepted while trying to connect pipes to a crude oil discharge point from a vessel supplying the Dangote Refinery. The vessel was discharging crude meant for petrol and diesel production when the thieves moved in to siphon it.

Troops from Headquarters 9 Brigade, working with 65 Battalion, acted on intelligence to carry out the pre-dawn raid. What they seized tells you how organised this was: a Mack tanker truck, a Lexus RX 350 SUV, a Ford Ranger pickup, a pumping machine, and a 40-horsepower Yamaha speedboat engine. This wasn’t opportunistic — it was a well-resourced operation.

The Army called it a significant breakthrough in efforts to secure critical infrastructure and combat crude oil theft in vulnerable coastal areas. The suspects and exhibits are in 65 Battalion’s custody while investigations continue.

The incident is a reminder that even the Dangote Refinery — Nigeria’s biggest industrial project in decades, built to end reliance on imported fuel — isn’t immune. If thieves can reach the supply lines of a facility with this level of security and national importance, the broader challenge of protecting the country’s oil infrastructure is even starker than most people realise.

Sources: Matrix Nigeria, Guardian Nigeria, Eons Intelligence