Nigeria Troops Sustain Onslaught Against Oil Thieves
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
The Armed Forces of Nigeria in their ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations have arrested 104 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 73 kidnapped hostages.
Troops in the South South, denied oil thieves the estimated sum N2,602,902,800 only.
The Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, said the armed forces will continue to degrade the ability of criminal elements to carry out small scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities across operational theatres in the country.
According to him, during the week under review, troops neutralised 254 and arrested 264 of them, recovered 378 assorted weapons and 4,705 assorted ammunition.
A further breakdown of the arrests and discoveries are 131 AK47 rifles, two FN rifles, two G3 rifle, three SMGs, 69 locally fabricated guns, 57 pump action guns, seven pistols, 14 locally fabricated pistols, fivd revolver rifles, 4 revolver pistols, 45 dane guns, four locally made single barrel guns, two hand grenades, seven RPG Launchers, one RPG bomb, one locally made double barrel gun, 17 dane gun double barrel guns and IEDs.
Others are: 2,444 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,712 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 80 rounds of 9mm ammo, 61 rounds of 5.45 x 39mm ammo, six rounds of 0.44 inch ammo, 415 live cartridges, ten empty cases of cartridges, 11 magazines, 18 vehicles, 40 motorcycles, 74 mobile phones, four baofeng radios, a cash sum of N748,43o, among other items.
Troops in the Niger Delta area, discovered and destroyed 131 dugout pits, 70 boats, 125 storage tanks, 12 motorcycles, two tricycles and 12 vehicles.
Other items recovered include 43 cooking ovens, 12 pump machines, six speedboats, one outboard engine and 67 illegal refining sites.
Troops recovered 3,282,250 litres of stolen crude oil, 224,050 litres of illegally refined AGO and 5,925 litres of DPK.
He promised that the military will continue to find innovative solutions to the challenges in order to achieve the top priorities of securing the country and protecting the citizens from harm caused by the evil elements across the country.
Major General Buba, encouraged the citizenry to demonstrate love for the country in the face of challenging circumstances in the spirit of valentine.
