The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Bayelsa State Command said on Wednesday that it destroyed over 500 illegal oil refining camps in various locations in the state in 2017.
Godwin Nwachukwu, the State Commandant, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Yenagoa.
Nwachukwu, while reviewing the Corps operations for 2017, said a total of 60 local boats used to transport stolen crude were also destroyed.
The Commandant said that the suspected persons in the boats were also arrested in connection with oil pipeline vandalism.
According to him, the 60 local boats captured and destroyed along the waterways were with over 50 million litres of suspected adulterated petroleum products.
He said: “In 2017, we uncovered and destroyed over 500 oil cooking camps; we also destroyed a total of 60 local boats in Bayelsa.
“Towards the end of the 2017, two tankers conveying illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, were arrested.
“And these tankers were handed over to us by the men of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Delta Safe.
“Yes, it was two trucks involving about nine persons and they have been prosecuted according to the law.
“The general public should steer clear of illegal oil activities not only in Bayelsa but Niger-Delta region and Nigeria at large, because NSCDC will not relent on its efforts to clamp down on such criminal act.
“Pipeline vandalism or illegal oil bunkering is not a good business because lives are always at risk.
“We are committed to bringing down illegal oil activities to a zero point in Bayelsa and nation at large in 2018.”
NAN.
