Soldiers take over Delta’s illegal oil refinery
Soldiers have raided and taken over an illegal crude oil refining site in Otumara community, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, and destroyed facilities being used for illegal oil bunkering.
Southern City News learnt that no one was arrested during the operation carried out by the soldiers on Tuesday.
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Aminu Iliyasu, in a chat with newsmen said, “The location has been particularly notorious as an illegal refinery.”
Iliyasu noted that the site had been raided at different times by officials of various security agencies in the last 11 months.
“Today’s own is the third. Anytime such an operation is conducted, the place will be destroyed. Troops will keep monitoring activities in the place and will still come back to wait. You have seen it. The last discovery of activities in this place was done six days ago,” he stated.
Iliyasu hinted that the General Officer Commanding, 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. Jamil Sarham, was at the location last Friday for an on-the-spot assessment of the area.
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He said, “Immediately he saw the level of damage, he directed the Commander, Sector 1, to deploy more troops and destroy equipment that are here. Not only that, he also occupied this place with soldiers permanently.
“Now, you have to appreciate this and I want to let you know that despite all our efforts, there are still some people, who think they can subvert whatever the country or the leadership of this country is doing. To me, this is a great economic sabotage to this nation.
“Aside that, when you look around, you will be able to see the level of environmental damage this has caused and is still causing this community. Away from that, you will know that the proceeds from this illegality are being channelled to more illegalities like drug smuggling, arms smuggling and sponsorship of other crimes.
“I know that with the deployment of these troops, you can see them all around. The next thing is that those, who are the owners of this place, who have been put out of this illicit business, will naturally want to hit back.
“We are waiting for them. They may want to go in the way of blackmailing the security agencies for this effort, because we are putting them out of business. Again, we have occupied this place permanently.”
Source: Punch
