Military Arrests 9 Terrorists,11 Suspected Oil Thieves

Defence Headquarters yesterday said troops on internal operations within the week arrested nine terrorist fighters including a notorious terrorist identified as Abdullahi Ali in the North East.

The director, defence media operations, Major General Markus Kangye in a statement said the troops also arrested 11 suspected oil thieves and recovered stolen products worth N536. 7m in the Niger Delta region.

He said the troops discovered and destroyed 29 crude oil cooking ovens, 31 dugout pits, 48 boats, 21 storage tanks, 18 drums and 16 illegal refining sites.

He gave a breakdown of recovered products as follows: 392,174 litres of stolen crude oil, 138,757 litres of illegally refined AGO, 830 litres of PMS and 375 litres of DPK.

Other items recovered include pumping machines, drilling machines, tricycles, motorcycles, mobile phones and four vehicles amongst others.

Furthermore, troops within the week recovered AK-47 rifles, locally fabricated guns, Dane guns, pump action, locally fabricated pistols and RPG tubes among others.

They also recovered include; various kinds of 7,62mm ammo as well as RPG bombs.