Soldiers have raided and occupied permanently an illegal refinery site just as they also destroyed facilities used in the illicit business in Otumara community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.
Items destroyed included; hoses, pipes, tanks and Cotonou boats used by the owners of the illegal refinery in transporting their stolen products.
DAILY POST can report that the soldiers have not arrested any suspects in their operations, which started eleven months ago.
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations Officer, Col. Aminu Iliyasu, in a chat with newsmen said, “The location has been particularly notorious as an illegal refinery.”
Col. Iliyasu noted that the location has been raided at different times by operatives of the various security agencies within a space of eleven months.
He said,” Today’s own is the third. Anytime such an operation is conducted, the place is being destroyed. Troops will keep monitoring activities in the place and will still come back to what you have seen. The last discovery of activities in this place was done six days ago.”
Col. Iliyasu hinted that the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army 6 Division, Maj. Gen. Jimmy Sarham, was at the location last Friday for an on the spot assessment of the general area.
According to Col. Iliyasu, “Immediately when he saw the level of carnage, he directly directed the Commander, Sector 1 to deploy more troops to destroy equipments that are here and not only that, occupy with soldiers this place permanently.
“Now, you have to appreciate this and I want to let you know that despite all our efforts that there are still some people that think they can subvert whatever the country or the leadership of the country is doing because to me, this is one of the greatest economic sabotages to this nation.
“Aside that, when you look around, you will be able to appreciate the level of environmental damages that this has caused and is still causing.
“Aside that, you will get to know that the proceeds from this illegality is being channeled to furthermore illegalities like illegal drugs smuggling, illegal arms smuggling and sponsoring other crimes.
“I know with the deployment of this troops, you can see them all around. The next thing is that, those owners of this place that have been put out of this illicit business will naturally want to hit back.
“We are waiting for them. They may want to go in the way of blackmailing the Security Agencies for this efforts because we are putting them out of business. Not only that, we have occupied this place permanently.”
Col. Iliyasu stated that the Delta State Government is highly supportive of its efforts and operations conducted by the Nigerian Army and other security agencies.
In his words, “How I wished you will extend this gory pictures of this environment to the world so that everybody will know what these enemies of the state are doing.”
The Commander, Sector 1 Operation Delta Safe, Colonel Habib Baba Manu corroborated the claims of the Army Image maker in a chat with newsmen.
Col. Manu vowed that, “We will cleanup this mess but definitely, it will take a while.”
He negative impact on the environment is so severe that there is no aquatic life in the general area. I am not talking about the impact on the economy.
“It is something we will continue to intensify and ensure that our troops remain responsive to their duties.”
Col. Manu also said any suspects arrested will be dealt with in line with due process.
