The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Thursday said that the threat posed by militancy and pirates to the Niger Delta oil and gas industry has been reduced in the year 2021.
It said that Joint Task Force South – South Operation DELTA SAFE (OPDS) has drastically reduced the security challenges that once threatened the region and its oil and gas industry which is the main economic pillar of the nation.
The Director Defence Media Operations Maj.-Gen Benard Onyeuko in a press briefing said that the anti-Crude Oil Theft (COT) efforts of the Joint Task Force during the year led to the destruction of over 1,423 illegal oil refining sites.
He said: “The efforts led to the demobilization of about 1,423 illegal oil refining sites (each of which contains many camps), over 4,929 storage facilities and 536 large wooden boats, popularly called ‘Cotonou boats’ among others.
“13 ships laden with crude oil cargo, 9 barges, 137 trucks and other types of vehicles conveying illegally refined products. Additionally, about 40 million litres of crude oil and 67 million litres of illegally refined products, mostly AGO, were recovered from the criminals.”
He said 567 suspects were arrested in connection with various crimes and handed over to the appropriate prosecuting agencies for prosecution.
According to him, some of the arrested suspects have been convicted, while others are still undergoing trials in various courts of law.
He also stated that the Task Force during the year conducted several clearance operations on militants’/Pirates’ camps and that about 51 such camps were completely destroyed while 153 assorted weapons as well as large numbers of various calibers of ammunition were recovered from the criminals.
He said that due to the sustained clearance operations on sea robbers/pirates and other criminals’ camps in Niger Delta and Nigerian Navy operations in the high seas, the number of sea robbery and pirate attacks in waters as well as the Gulf of Guinea have drastically reduced.
According to him, “in 2021, there were 28 reported cases of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea which forms part of Nigeria’s waters while within the same period, only 4 attacks were recorded in Nigerian Waters. “
