Navy Destroys Seven Illegal Refineries in Niger Delta

Paul Obi in Abuja

In a combat operation aimed at ridding the Niger Delta of maritime and economic crimes, the Nigerian Navy tuesday destroyed about seven illegal refineries, making several arrests in the region.

Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Christian Ezekobe, said the operation yielded positive outcomes in the fight against increasing cases of economic crimes in the oil rich region.

He said: “The Naval patrol team deployed by NNS Pathfinder has again arrested 2 barges at Taraba Jetty in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for alleged involvement in illegal oil bunker.

“One of the arrested barges had about 70,000 liters of suspected illegally refined AGO while the other was carrying a mixture of AGO and water.

“Additionally, the patrol team arrested another barge conveying about 200 MT of suspected illegally refined AGO at Owogoro Jetty in Port Harcourt.”

According to Ezekobe, “in a related development, the patrol teams deployed by NNS Delta for daily patrols have continually secured shipping in and out of Warri axis.

“However, in the course of the patrol, the patrol team discovered and destroyed 2 illegal refineries together with an estimated 120MT of products suspected to be illegally refined AGO and another 20MT of stolen crude oil at Bikpoku Creek and Asigbo Creek in Warri South LGA of Delta State.

“Additionally, another patrol team from NNS Delta discovered and destroyed 5 illegal refineries with about 100MT of combined products at KO Creek in Warri South West LGA of Delta State.”

He explained that with this operation, it btings “to 7 the number of illegal refineries destroyed in the area in the last 2 days.”