36 illegal refineries destroyed in one week – DHQ

The Defence Headquarters said on Thursday that troops deployed in the Niger Delta uncovered and destroyed 36 illegal refining sites and stopped the theft of crude oil worth N793m in the last one week.

It added that 106 terrorists were killed in the North and 103 abductees rescued.

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

Buba said, “During the week under review, troops neutralised 106 and arrested 164 persons. Troops also arrested 32 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 103 kidnapped hostages. In the South-South, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of N793,536,000.00 only.

“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 20 dugout pits, 24 boats and 34 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 56 cooking ovens, two speedboats, 14 pumping machines, 18 drums, 22 vehicles, four motorcycles and 36 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 802,200 litres of stolen crude oil, 121,900 litres of illegally refined AGO and 450 litres of DPK.”

Buba noted that troops recovered 125 assorted weapons and 1,522 assorted ammunition.

“The breakdown is as follows: 41 AK47 rifles, one PKT gun, 24 locally-fabricated guns, 28 Dane guns, one pump-action gun, 755 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 623 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 102 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 63 live cartridges, 247 empty cases of 7.62mm ammo, 22 AK47 magazines, one baofeng radio, 22 vehicles, 31 motorcycles, two bicycles, 10 mobile phones and the sum of N2,956,000.00 only amongst other items,” he added.

Buba noted that the troops are locating terrorists, flushing them out, and dismantling their military, administrative, and logistical capabilities across various theatres.

He said, “The ongoing multi-front military operations are focussed on targeting the centre of gravity of terrorists and their cohorts across the country. Accordingly, we are finding them, flushing them out and dismantling their military, administrative and logistics capabilities across the various theatres.

“The operations are going in an upward trajectory, even as we prioritised targeting the terrorist leaders, commanders, foot soldiers as well as their collaborators. Many of these categories of terrorists have been eliminated from the battlefield and we are after the others.”