The Nigerian Defence Headquarters says troops of Operation Delta Safe discovered and destroyed 57 illegal refining sites and arrested 21 oil thieves in Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers states.
This was announced by the Director, Defence Media Operations, Major-General Musa Danmadami, while giving an update on Military operations in Abuja, on Thursday.
Danmadami revealed that the troops also destroyed 953 cooking ovens, 68 wooden boats, 172 storage tanks, and 149 dug-out pits in three weeks.
According to him, Operation Octopus Grip recovered eight tankers, 63 vehicles, two speed boats, one thug boat, 14 motorcycles, one tricycle, three bicycles, 11 pumping machines, and three outboard engines.
“Cumulatively within the weeks in focus, oil thieves were denied a total of N713.6 million in the region.
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“The large quantity of illegal crude oil and other petroleum products recovered and destroyed and the number of arrested oil thieves and pipeline vandals, shows the unrelenting efforts by the troops of Operation Delta Safe in denying them freedom of action,” he said.
He also said that seven criminals were neutralised in the zone, 25 others were apprehended and eight kidnapped civilians were rescued.