The Defence Headquarters says its troops have arrested 17 oil thieves and dismantled several illegal refineries in the South-South zone.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, disclosed this at a bi-weekly news briefing on the operations of the armed forces on Thursday in Abuja.
He said the arrest was carried out by troops of Operation Delta Safe, who conducted patrol, raids, clearance and swamp buggy operations in the creeks, villages, communities and towns in Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers States respectively.
According to Danmadami, the troops discovered and destroyed several illegal refining sites with 103 storage tanks, 94 ovens, 58 dugout pits and 17 wooden boats.
He said 10 trucks, one generator, one tanker, two vehicles and eight pumping machines were also recovered by the troops.
He said, “Troops arrested 17 pipeline vandals while a total of 7,805 barrels of crude oil and 2,613 barrels of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) were recovered.
“In addition, a total of N134.6 million of AGO and N402.4 million were denied by oil thieves.”
Danmadami said four suspected armed robbers were apprehended between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13 at Okpokumu community in Delta and Iduodah community in Rivers.
Items recovered from the suspects include two G3 rifles, one locally made pump action gun, one locally made pistol, three G3 magazine, three AK47 magazines, 280 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 780 rounds of 7.62mm special, MMG metal links, two baofeng radios.
Other items recovered are five pairs of military camouflages, six pairs of desert boots, some Nigerian currency notes and large quantities of items suspected to be hard drugs.
“The arrested suspects and items recovered have been handed over to the relevant authority for further action,” he added.
