The Nigeria Army said its troops of the 6 Division, in conjunction with other security agencies have scaled up the ongoing anti-illegal oil bunkering operations across the Niger Delta Region.
In a statement on its official Facebook page on Sunday, it said troops recovered arms and ammunitions, deactivated 46 illegal refining sites, 47 boats used to ferry stolen products across the treacherous terrain, arrested 28 oil thieves with over 95,000 litres of stolen products recovered.
“These were in addition to other strangulation operations targeted at crippling the criminal network of cartels in the region. The operations which were conducted from 11-17 November 2024 recorded several operational successes,” it said.
According to the statement, in Rivers State, following credible intelligence on the activities of economic saboteurs along the Oando pipeline in Ebocha, a New base in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area Area, ONELGA, troops engaged armed criminals.
It said troops swiftly mobilised to the area. On reaching the spot, troops encountered armed vandals, who opened fire on troops. In the firefight that ensued, the criminals who were overwhelmed by superior fire, fled in disarray.
“Further exploitation of the general area led to the recovery of one AK 47 riffle, one magazine loaded with 17 rounds of 7.62 mm (Special) ammunition abandoned by the fleeing armed vandals.
It said more operations were conducted around Obiafu-Ndoni, and large wooden boats conveying over 472 sacks of stolen crude estimated to be 28,320 litres were intercepted.
“Seven suspected oil thieves have been arrested in connection to the heinous crime. Several operations were also conducted around the Buguma general area in Asari Toru LGA, which led to the dismantling of numerous illegal refining sites, the deactivation of several boats as well as the recovery of over 9,500 litres of stolen products.
“Operations were also conducted around Tuma and Krakrama general areas in Degema LGA with a number of wooden and fibre boats destroyed and over 10,500 litres of stolen Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) confiscated,” it said.