Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, says the Military will deploy a different strategy and a new drive against oil thieves in a bid to halt the alarming rate of oil theft, vandalism, illegal oil bunkering and refinning activities in the country.
Irabor explained that under the new strategy, not only the criminals would be pursued but also their sponsors.
The CDS spoke during an assessment tour organised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. to some illegal crude oil refining sites in Rivers State, recently.
“We are not only zeroing in on the criminals, but also on those who are supporting them.”
Also speaking, the Commander, JTF Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Aminu Hassan, explained that oil thieves and illegal oil refiners construct network of pipelines which transits through the bushes and the creeks into reservoirs, which in some cases, spill and waste crude oil.
Hassan while giving a situation report of OPDS operation to curb oil theft and illegal refining activities in the Niger Delta, said the fight against oil theft was a difficult one because of the terrain, but assured that his men were out to end illegal refining and oil theft in the country.
He described the work of the JTF as a multi-agency operation covering 10 states, with the collaboration of 12 security agencies.
Hassan said there were a lot of illegal refining camps in the country, but that clearance operation had started to ensure they were not resuscitated after being destroyed.
“The reservoirs have been destroyed; if you do not destroy the tanks completely, they will reconstruct and continue.
“The way we are working is the same way the criminals involved in the illegal refining are working; but we are ahead of them.”
On the tour were the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and the Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, among others.
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