The Defence Headquarters on Thursday revealed that troops in the past two weeks intercepted stolen crude worth N1.2 billion even as Nigeria’s oil production capacity increased in September. The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba said this while briefing journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, on the activities of the Military in recent times. The Defence spokesperson promised to incapacitate terrorists from conducting small-scale attacks on soft targets. Buba said troops, during their operations, killed 73 terrorists, arrested 182, and rescued 68 hostages in one week.
“The ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations have prevented these evil elements form accomplishing their strategic objectives.
“The Military will continue to degrade their ability to carry out small-scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities,” He noted.
The director mentioned that the troops identified and destroyed 63 illegal refining sites containing 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 128 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, four outboard engines and arrested 14 suspected oil thieves.
Buba added that the troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,450 litres of DPK, and 45,000 litres of PMS with an estimated value of N1, ,212,046,140.