Troops from the Joint Task Force, Operation DELTA SAFE, uncovered and destroyed approximately 80 illicit refining sites, 254 storage tanks, 173 cooking furnaces, 118 dugout pits, and 36 wooden boats in the country’s south-south.
Major General Musa Danmadami, Director of Defence Media Operations, said this during the Bi-weekly briefing in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, saying that the briefing covered the period from November 17 to December 1, 2022.
In addition, troops retrieved 5 AK-47 rifles loaded with 10 million rounds of 7.62mm special, 11 cars, 6 tankers, 8 pumping machines, 3 motorcycles, 2 outboard engines, 1 tricycle, and 391,000 liters of automotive gas oil, according to General Danmadami. 81 criminal elements were also apprehended during the various operations.
Similarly, on 21 November 2022, troops raided suspected gunmen enclave at Ebem Community in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State.
He said following the operation troops arrested 13 suspects and recovered 2 pump action guns, 2 double barrel rifles, 3 Dane guns, 1 locally made pistol, 3 cartridges and 6 machetes.
Cumulatively within the weeks in focus oil thieves were denied a total of Four Hundred and Seventy-One Million, Two Hundred and Five Thousand Four Hundred and Twenty Five Naira (N471,205,425.00) in the South-South Region.