Operatives of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Warri Naval Base, on Tuesday, went harder on oil thieves, destroying several illegal refineries at Bennett Island in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
Instead of the old method of burning stolen crude oil and illegal refineries, the operatives now engage swamp buggies, which is more environment-friendly, to destroy them without harm to the environment.
Speaking with journalists during an operation at Bennett Island, Commander, NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, said the Navy has begun to depend heavily on swamp buggies to stamp out the menace which has been yielding many results.
“We decided to be using swamp buggies and since we started using them, the miscreants have been running shelter skelter,” he noted.
Commodore Dewu disclosed that several illegal refineries were, in the last one month, destroyed at deep creeks of Otumara, Ogbegugu and Okpuku with the aide of swamp buggies.
The naval boss, however, observed that the oil thieves had also devised a subterfuge means of frustrating his men from carrying out their operations by using logs to block access roads to illegal refineries.
He added that immediately the oil thieves see them ferrying the equipment through the river to illegal refineries in the creeks, they’ll quickly set fire on the oily environment to trap his men and prevent them from gaining access to the locations.
Commodore Dewu disclosed that, in spite of the challenges, the perpetrators of illegal refineries are greatly feeling the heat of the several destructions his men had and are carrying out.
It is for this reason, he opined, there have been sustained campaigns by beneficiaries of the economic sabotage for the removal of Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman as head of the Joint Task Force.
“The campaign is coming from just one company and we have several IOCs in the Niger Delta. No other IOC has complained about the JTF.
“This (destruction of illegal refineries) is part of what we’ve been doing of recent that is now causing the agitations,” Dewu.
The NNS Delta boss, who vowed that the JTF nor the Nigerian Navy would not be deterred or distracted by the campaigns of calumny, advised illegal refineries operators to stop destroying their environment and seek a genuine means of livelihood.
“The perpetrators should know that we will not be deterred. They should desist from stealing crude oil, cooking it illegally and destroying the environment. We’ll keep going after them,” he vowed.
As of the time of filing this report, the armed naval operatives and the swamp buggy were still at Bennett Island smashing iron tanks and other containers amid smoke and fire set by the criminals to dissuade their traducers.
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