JTF destroys 6,000 illegal refineries, arrests 150 oil thieves in the N/Delta

Tribune

23 January 2012

JTF destroys 6,000 illegal refineries, arrests 150 oil thieves in the N/Delta

Not less than 6,000 illegal oil refineries were destroyed across the Niger Delta in 2011 by the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Restore Hope, now renamed Operation Pulo Shield.

Disclosing this to journalists in Port Harcourt at the weekend, spokesman of the task force, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Antigha, also said more than 150 persons were arrested within same period for their involvement in oil theft, just as five ships and four barges used in the illicit act were seized.

During the course of the briefing, the JTF spokesman handed seven suspected oil thieves and five truck-loads of petroleum products, over to the Rivers State command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for further appropriate actions.

According to him, the suspects were arrested in Waterlines area of Port Harcourt and Oyigbo, on the outskirts of the city, during a raid conducted by the task force this month, adding that the products were below the standard of regulatory authorities.

Antigha, who explained that the task force had handed the suspects over to the NSCDC because the task force being a military outfit had no mandate to pursue civil prosecutions, gave the names of the arrested oil theft suspects as Babayo Dauda, Mohammed Abdulahi, Bukar Alima, and Jeremiah Umaru, Ali Salisu, Ibrahim Abdulahi and Ikechukwu Ukaegbu.