Punch: Fifteen-year-old Sani Musa on Thursday shocked onlookers during a parade by policemen attached to the Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, when he confessed that he had travelled to Lagos from Jos for the sole purpose of engaging in pipeline vandalism.
Musa was arrested alongside three others -Chibuzor Okorie, Musa Adamu and Aminu Suleiman- with a truck as well as 200 kegs of 50 litres of diesel, which was allegedly siphoned from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipeline in the Sagamu area of Ogun State.
Sani said,
My family could barely feed and there was no money for my education. My father advised me when I was 14 that I was old enough to travel down to Lagos and make money for the family. He called one of my relatives, Alhaji Sherrif, who is a businessman in Lagos that he wanted him to show me the way and Alhaji told me about the business (pipeline vandalism). As soon as I arrived, Alhaji Sheriff said I should join him as a conductor in his business. He buys and sells diesel and other products to drivers and most of them are got from our suppliers at Sagamu.
He told me the implication of the business and the danger in case of arrest. He was the one that advised me to say that I am a student and had just arrived Lagos few weeks ago in case the police accosted me. My duty is just to serve as a conductor attached to one of his drivers. I never joined them when they went into the bush; all I did, was to stand by the roadside, watch out for security personnel and alert them. Our duty is strictly to carry the product and deliver it to Mile 12, where we have tanks. He pays me N2,000 per trip which is a lot of money. I am terribly sorry; it’s just that I promised to change the fortunes of my family. I am sorry, please forgive me and give me another chance to return back to school. I am still in primary four.
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