Navy Destroys Illegal Refinery, Arrests 37 Suspected Miners

Troops of the Nigerian Navy in continuation Operation DELTA SENTINEL have destroyed illegal refining sites and arrested 37 suspected illegal miners .

A statement by the Naval Spokesman Captain Abiodun Folorunsho, personnel of Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) PATHFINDER and Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) SOROH in separate disrupted illegal oil refining activities and arrested suspected illegal miners in Rivers and Bayelsa States, respectively.

He said the patrol team from NNS PATHFINDER during an Anti-Crude Oil Theft (Anti-COT) patrol around the Ojekiri general area in Rivers State discovered an illegal refinery site along the Alakiri River containing about 10 dugout pits laden with approximately 45,000 litres of stolen crude oil.

According to him, the site and the stored crude oil were subsequently destroyed in accordance with extant operational procedures, while the suspected perpetrators fled the scene upon sighting the naval personnel.

In a related development, a patrol team from NNS SOROH, acting on credible intelligence and in compliance with the Bayelsa State Government’s directive prohibiting black sand mining, arrested 37 suspected illegal miners at Anyama Jetty in Yenagoa.

He said the suspects were apprehended while attempting to transfer an unspecified quantity of black sand from a wooden boat into two trucks waiting at the jetty.

“The arrested suspects, along with the trucks, the wooden boat, and the recovered mineral resources, were subsequently handed over to Operation DOO-AKPO, the Bayelsa State security outfit, for further investigation,” he said.