Air Component of Operation Delta Safe Continues Onslaught Against Oil Thieves
Princess-Ekwi Ajide
In the month of February 2024, Nigerian troops denied oil thieves an estimated sum over eight billion naira only.
It also recovered 8,993,245 litres of stolen crude oil; 1,062,635 litres of illegally refined AGO, 18,950 litres of DPK and 45,950 litres of PMS amongst other item.
It is in continuation of these efforts to reduce to the barest minimum the activities of crude oil thieves and oil pipeline vandals, that the Air Component of Operation Delta Safe, on 1 March 2024, destroyed illegal oil refining sites at Krakama and Temakiri in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Both locations are barely 50 km Southwest of Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
At the sites, active illegal oil refining sites, Cotonou Boats were sighted nearby with the probable intent to illegally siphon crude oil from the sites.
The Illegal sites and the boats were subsequently struck, engulfed in flames and destroyed.
The armed reconnaissance was also extended to Abisse and Omoma, but only abandoned illegal refining sites were observed.
A statement by the Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Edward Gabkwet, notes efforts to rid the Niger Delta region of the activities of oil thieves by the NAF and other security agencies remain on course and will continue until total success is achieved irrespective of whose ox is gored.
