The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, said today it has apprehended 11 suspected oil thieves and destroyed 27 illegal refineries.
A press statement in Yenagoa by Lt.-Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, JTF’s Media Coordinator, said the events took place in raids carried out on land and maritime locations in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta between July 26 and Aug. 9.
He disclosed that five of the suspects were arrested while siphoning oil from pipelines in Otokomabie Creek in Rivers.
“Troops of the 146 Battalion of Sector 2 of the JTF deployed in Bonny Island intercepted the suspects on the Trans-Niger Pipeline where PPMC and SPDC pipelines are laid,” he said, adding that the suspects were arrested with three fibre speedboats and three barges with which they carried out their illicit activities.
He also stated that youths of the Ogala Community in the Okirika Local Government Area of Rivers facilitated the arrest of a truck used for illegal bunkering activities.
“The truck, laden with illegally-sourced crude oil was reported to JTF land patrols that promptly swung into action and impounded the vehicle,” Nwachukwu said.
The 11 destroyed illegal distilleries were in Mbikiba and Lagosbene in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa, he said, adding that the waterways teams also destroyed seven open wooden boats being used by oil thieves.
The statement said that the anti-oil-theft operation in Delta State uncovered and destroyed 16 illegal crude oil distilleries in Ugbokodo, Ajudigho, Saghara, Obegugu and Oghara in the Warri South and Ethiope West Local Government Areas.
The troops also intercepted 10 wooden boats conveying adulterated automated gas oil (AGO).
Three of the boats, he said, were loaded with 15,000 litres each; six had contained 20,000 litres each, while one was loaded with 33,000 litres.
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