The Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) DELTA on Wednesday said it destroyed about 1500 illegal refineries with swamp buggy in the Delta creeks in the last two months.
The Commander of the ship, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, made the disclosure to journalists in Warri, Delta State.
He said the destruction exercise was carried out in the creeks of Otumara, Ogbegugu, Okpuku in the Warri creeks, adding that operatives of the command were currently on the Bennett Island in Warri South Local Government Area of the state in continuation of the exercise.
Dewu noted that the illegal refiners had devised means of preventing the soldiers and the swamp buggy from gaining access to the sites by blocking the entrances with logs or setting fire around the sites.
The naval chief, however, stressed that their antics would not deter the soldiers from carrying out their statutory obligation of completely eradicating illegalities in the maritime domain.
He said, “It takes us time to remove the logs for our men and the swamp buggy to have access but we are determined.”
“The antics of the criminal elements will not deter us from eradicating the illegality with the aid of swamp buggy which I believe will bring a lasting solution to economic sabotage.
“We decided to apply swamp buggy because it is more environmentally friendly and difficult for the perpetrators to resuscitate the illicit business are also crushed completely in the process.
“Apart from that, we also do post-monitoring of the various sites we have destroyed to ensure that the criminals do not return to reactivate them.
“So far, the exercise has been successful and we will not rest on our oars until the illegalities are completely eradicated in our maritime domain.”
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