The Nigerian military, Thursday said, troops of the Nigerian military, arrested no fewer than 45 oil thieves, and also, identified and destroyed 23 illegal refining sites in two weeks.

It also, revealed that one vessel belonging to a cartel of oil thieves, MT Deima was arrested with eight crew member on board the ship.

“Troops of the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe in the South South Region have continued to sustain aggressive patrols to curb the menace of Crude Oil Theft (COT) and illegal bunkering within Nigeria Maritime Environment with a view at ensuring the economic prosperity of the nation,” the military said.

Major General Musa Danmadami, Director, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters (DHQ), said this while briefing Defence correspondents in Abuja.

We have enough petrol on ground – IPMAN

He said, “troops of Operation Delta Safe in the conduct of Operation Octopus Grip on 6 October 2022 in conjunction with the operatives of State Security Services conducted raid operations within Sapele area and arrested 3 suspected illegal oil thieves who were tracked and monitored to Adige, Urhiakpa and Mission road in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State.Relatedly, troops of operation Delta Safe in their continue strife to curb oil theft on 7 October 2022, arrested a vessel MT Deima with 8 crew, for illegal bunkering activities at Sara area of Escravos Channel,” he said.

Major General Danmadami said, the vessel has a length of 82 meters and a breath of 10 meters with a capacity of 1500MT.

The vessel, he added had 6 tank compartments loaded with unspecified quantity of crude oil.

“Accordingly, following directive the vessel was appropriately handled. Troops also conducted patrols and buggy operations in the zone. During the operations several illegal refineries, storage tanks, wooden boats, cooking ovens, dug out pits were discovered and destroyed.15. Troops also conducted operational activities in the creeks, waterway, communities, towns and cities of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States,” he further revealed.

He noted that during the operations, several illegal refining sites, metal storage tanks, wooden boats, dugouts pits and cooking ovens were discovered.

Within the weeks in review, he said, troops of Operation Delta Safe in the conduct of Operation Octopus Grip discovered and destroyed 23 illegal refining sites, 87 wooden boats, 7 speed boat, 284 storage tanks, 160 cooking ovens, 3 fibre boats and 18 dugout pits.

Troops, he said, also, recovered Two Million Five Hundred Nine Thousand (2,509,000) litres of crude oil, One Hundred Thirty Three Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Four (133,824) litres of Automotive Gas Oil and Seven Thousand (7,000) litres of Dual Purpose Kerosine, 16 tankers, 1 vessel, 8 pumping machines, 2 motorcycle and 42 suspected criminals were also arrested while the sum of Six Hundred Fifty Four Million Eight Hundred Fifty Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Five Naira Four Kobo (N654,850,755.04) only were also denied oil thieves.

He concluded that all recovered items and apprehended criminals were handed over to the appropriates authority for further action.