By Linus Aleke Abuja
The Nigerian military, on Thursday, said that its troops deployed to the South South region, and operating under the Operation Delta Safe, discovered and destroyed 50 illegal refining sites.
The military high command, also disclosed that the troops equally arrested 49 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 139 kidnapped hostages.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, said this while, addressing a press conference in Abuja.
He noted that the troops also destroyed 245 dugout pits, 31 boats, 69 storage tanks, 23 vehicles, 162 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, three outboard engine, and one tricycle.
Gen Buba also said that the troops recovered 578,900 litres of stolen crude oil, 454,330 litres of illegally refined AGO and 10,000 litres of DPK.9.
He said: “In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Eighteen Million Four Hundred and Eighty Three Thousand Nine Hundred Naira (N1,018,483,900.00) only.
Furthermore, troops recovered 141 assorted weapons and 1,463 assorted ammunition. The breakdown are as follows: one GPMG, one GT3 rifle, one assault rifle, 49 AK47 rifles, one josef magnum pump action gun, one double barrel gun, two single barrel guns, nine locally made pistols, 13 dane guns, one hand grenade, seven locally made rifles, three RPG chargers, two locally made hand grenades”.
Others, he said, are: “347 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 966 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 25 rounds of 9mm ammo, 58 live cartridges, 50 rounds of empty cases of 7.62mm special ammo, 30 magazines, 27 vehicles, 47 mobile phones, 34 motorcycles and sum of N717,580.00 amongst other items. Going by the outcome of ongoing operations across the country”.
