Seven Chinese are in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps following the discovery of seven drums of petrol in their premises.

The suspects: Li Tao, Wang Dong, Di Sheng, Yun Di, Tony Yang, Cheng Chao, Ping Mei were arrested on Thursday by a team of Anti-Vandal operatives led by the Zonal Commandant of the Zone A Command Headquarters in Lagos, Sam Oyemachi, who was at the Diamond Estate to investigate complaints by resident that their wells have been polluted by fuel from the vandalised NNPC pipelines behind the estate. Also arrested are Helen Osuah, a house wife from Edo State and her 11-year-old daughter who had gone to the pipeline site to scoop fuel for their personal use.

Mr Oyemachi also visited the vandalised pipeline with his team and saw the numerous wells dug by the vandals. He said that the area should be declared a disaster zone. "I am at the pipeline site behind the Diamond Estate with my officers and what we saw here is very frightening," he said. "The whole area is a disaster zone and we are amazed at the level these vandals have gone. On our part, we have continued to inform the government of the disaster here.

The people are building houses very close to the pipeline and any spark here will consume the place. What we used to have were holes; now we have a canal dug by the NNPC, but they are not doing their job to solve this problem. From our investigation, we noticed that all the churches in this area are hideouts for vandals and we found fuel in Jerry cans in the building. On our part, we will place a tight security around the place. I have mandated our officers to begin a twenty four hours patrol and surveillance of the area so that we can protect this place effectively."

The denials

One of the suspects, Mr Yang, said they are not vandals. "We are not vandals; we saw Nigerians scooping fuel from the bush behind the estate and we also scoop fuel," he said. "So we do not know that it is illegal. We are generator merchants and we are not vandals. The fuel is behind our building and everybody in the estate come to scoop it, so we scoop too."

Mrs Osuah, who had been arrested by the security officials last year, equally denied that she is a vandal. "I came to scoop fuel with my daughter, we need fuel for our generator," she said. "And people in the estate, even the police and the civil defence people come to scoop fuel here so we just came to take fuel for our generator,"

Mr Oyemachi said the suspects will be prosecuted. "We are taking them to our office at Alausa for interrogation," he said. "We have cordoned their premises and taken the drums as exhibits."