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A man has been arrested in Rivers State for allegedly attempting to bride the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder with N700,000 to release his seized boat containing 80 drums of illegally refined diesel.
The wooden boat and products were intercepted during a recent operation by the agency.
The man who gave his name as Kenneth Sunday was said to have walked into the NNS Pathfinder barracks in Rumuolumeni area of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area with the money wrapped in a white plastic bag and demanded to see his boat.
He was then asked by a naval officer to identify and inspect the consignment among many others that were displayed at the naval jetty.
On his return from the jetty, the commander who waiting at the jetty, ordered his arrest and immediately paraded him and the money before journalists who had just returned with the naval crew from an operation against illegal oil refining.
The suspect, however, denied that he was at the Navy barracks to bribe the commander and claimed that the boat he inspected was not his, but that of a friend.
Meanwhile, the navy has discovered a community of illegal crude oil refiners in the state, and arrested several suspects.
