Crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region
By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja
The ongoing military operations by the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) across the country have continued to yield appreciable results with the elimination of 113 terrorists and arrest of 300 other criminal elements in the last two weeks.
Troops of the AFN also arrested 25 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 91 kidnapped hostages, while denying oil theft of the estimated sum of N571,793,350.00 in the South-South region.
Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major-General Edward Buba, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while briefing the media on the on-going operations aimed containing insecurity and other criminal activities in the country.
He further announced that the troops recovered 129 assorted weapons and 717 assorted ammunitions during the operations.
Major-General Buba gave the breakdown of the recovered arms and ammunitions as follows: one Unserviceable AA gun, one RPG tube, 5 RPG bombs, one GT3 rifle, 54 AK47 rifles, 8 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made rifle, 2 pistols, 2 pump action guns, 2 dane guns, 4 locally fabricated pistol, 3 skeleton of AK47 rifles, 9 hand grenades, one unserviceable AK47 rifle, 14 magazines, 321 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 40 live cartridges.
Others are: 53 rounds of 5.45mm x 39mm ammo, 35 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 100 rounds of short gun, 11 rifle body, 7 breech block, 7 rifle butts, 8 rifle muzzles, 9 piston assembles, 210 springs, one drilling machine, hand filling machines, 10 magazine purges, IED making materials, 4 boafeng radios, 15 motorcycles, 20 mobile phones and the sum of N348,200.00 amongst other items.
In the Niger Delta area, he said the troops discovered and destroyed 76 dugout pits, 35 boats, 95 storage tanks, 10 vehicles, 129 cooking ovens, 5 pumping machine, 13 speedboats, 6 outboard engine, one vessel, 3 motorcycles and 49 illegal refining sites.
“Troops recovered 514,640 litres of stolen crude oil, 339,315 litres of illegally refined AGO and 775 litres of DPK,” he said.
