Troops Deactivate 51 Illegal Refineries, Arrest 23 Oil Bunkerers–DMO
No fewer than 51 illegal refineries have been deactivated by the Nigerian military.
The sites, which were discovered in Rivers, Abia, Cross Rivers, and Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Imo States, were deactivated by troops of Operation of Delta Safe.
Benard Onyeuko, Acting Director, Defence Media Operations, DMO, revealed this at a media briefing on ongoing military operations, across the country.
Speaking at the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, Onyeuko, a Brigadier General, said troops of Operation Delta Safe have sustained operations to forestall the activities of economic saboteurs and other criminal elements in the South-South Zone.
“In the course of the operations, troops discovered and deactivated a total of 51 illegal refining sites.
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“The sites cumulatively had a total of 76 ovens, 52 cooking pots/boilers, 22 cooling systems, 102 reservoirs, 16 large dugout pits and 513 storage tanks as well as drums and sacks laden with illegally refined oil products.
“Additionally, 23 criminal elements were arrested and 73 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 5 cartridges, 2 AK-47 rifles, one double-barrel gun, one pump action gun and 3 locally-made pistols among other items were recovered in the course of the operations in the Zone.
“Consequently, a total of 317,450 litres of illegally refined AGO, 8,000 litres of DPK and 159,000 litres of stolen crude were recovered in the course of the operations.
“These were in addition to several other vehicles and boats loaded with sacks/polythene bags and jerry cans of illegally refined oil products and equipment used for illegal oil production as well as illicit drugs; impounded by troops within the period,” the DMO Acting Director, said.
