Illegal Bitumen Refinery: Chinese Nationals Arrested in Covert Customs-DSS Operation

BY GBOGBOWA GBOWA

In a dramatic sting operation that underscores Nigeria’s deepening struggle with illegal resource exploitation, operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Department of State Security (DSS) have sealed an illicit bitumen refinery at a border location in Oyo State.

The raid, reportedly triggered by insider intelligence from within the NCS, led to the arrest of several Chinese nationals and a local errand man linked to the refinery operations.

Dependable sources indicate that the suspects are currently in DSS custody, undergoing interrogation. Despite the gravity of the bust, officials including the Oyo/Osun Area Command of the NCS have denied any knowledge of the operation. Attempts to confirm the details of the operation from the Oyo/Osun Area Command of the NCS have proved abortive for about two weeks as the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Gambo Aliyu and the Command Public Relations Officer, ASC Akintola were not been forthcoming.

When pressed for comment Tuesday morning, the Command’s Public Relations Officer tersely stated: “The Command is not aware of any such development.”

This incident is a microcosm of a much larger tragedy: Nigeria’s mineral wealth continues to be siphoned off by criminal syndicates and foreign collaborators, often under the watchful silence — or active complicity — of government officials. From crude oil bunkering in the Niger Delta to illegal gold and other solid minerals mining in Zamfara and parts of the South West, the story remains the same: brisk business, official collusion, and national loss.

While the government continues to borrow to fund basic infrastructure, the nation’s mineral resources are criminally exploited to enrich foreign economies and local cartels. The Oyo refinery bust is a rare glimpse into the shadows which unless followed by transparency, prosecution, and reform, risks becoming just another forgotten headline.

Nigeria’s situation represents a nation robbed twice: first by thieves, then by silence; a deafening silence. And the cost of complicity is continuous bleeding, which is blowing in the air while its guardians look away.