BY UWAKWE UWAKWE
The Joint Military Task-force (JTF) in the Niger Delta has said that it destroyed no fewer than 6,000 illegal refineries across the region.
JTF spokesman, Lt. Colonel Timothy Antigha disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt while handing over seven suspected oil thieves and five trucks loaded with petroleum products to the Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Antigha stated that the task-force also seized four barges and five ships as well as arrested over 150 persons suspected to have been involved in illegal bunkering activities in the region in 2011 alone.
He disclosed that with the restructuring of the JTF, the security outfit now have five sectors that cut across the formations of the Nigerian Army in the Niger Delta region while its headquarters still remained in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The JTF spokesman listed the new sectors to include; Sector One with headquarters at 4 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Benin, Edo State, and Sector Two with headquarters at 2 Brigade, Port Harcourt while Sector Three has its headquarters at 13 Brigade, Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State.
Antigha listed others as; Sector Four with headquarters at 14 Brigade, Nigerian Army Ohafia, Abia State and Sector Five, which has its headquarters at 34 Brigade, Obinze-Owerri, Imo State.
He said the suspects that were handed over to NSCDC and the trucks were arrested at Waterlines area of Port Harcourt and Oyigbo town in Oyigbo local government area of the state.
The JTF spokesman explained that the task-force decided to hand-over the suspects to the NSCDC for further investigations and prosecution, pointing out that the Nigerian Army has no powers to prosecute civil matters.
The suspects handed over to the NSCDC included; Babayo Dauda, Mohammed Abdullahi, Bukar Alima, and Jeremah Umaru.
Others were; Ali Salisu, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Ikechukwu Ukaegbu .#
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