12th May, 2024
The Nigerian military says it has uncovered 50 illegal refining sites at the Biseni forest in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Disclosing this was the the commander of the military Joint Task Force in Niger Delta “Operation Delta Safe (OPDS)”, Rear Admiral John Okeke who led the operation.
Okeke who was speaking to journalists, said: “On May 9, 2024, we were at Ukwa West LGA, in Abua State bordering Rivers State, a contiguous forest bear a shared along Imo River.
“Today like I said we are not going to relent and is work in progress. We will not get tired, we will continue, we are in Biseni in Yenagoa LGA of Bayelsa. We transverse from Ahoada West LGA, of Rivers to reach this point, the most surprising thing is that this place we are now is housing over 50 cooking sites with unique arrangements.
“Why are the thieves operating in this area decided to be so smart by connecting what is called theft line made of two inches pipe, a galvanized pipe connecting directly to supply oil line on the road, from a distance of one kilometer.
“Then they have a lot of funny connections where they have various arrangement of connection, multiple connection where each of the thief get their supply. From a large dugout open pit that can accommodate more than 10 trucks of AGO, holding crude oil from where they distribute to their cooking site.
“Look at the thick forest, we are now, you can never imagine that such serious crime is going on here, if not for the good spirited individual that volunteer information, we wouldn’t have known,” he said.
