The Defence Headquarters on Thursday say, in April, troops apprehended 430 perpetrators of oil theft, terrorists and other criminal elements, rescued 173 kidnapped hostages, while over 204 terrorists and members of their families surrendered to own troops.
Major General Markus Kangye, Director of Defence Media Operations disclosed this during the bi-weekly media briefing at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja
Maj General Kangye said troops of Operation DELTA SAFE foiled oil theft worth over One Billion Nine Hundred and Thirty One Million Two Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety Seven Naira (N1, 931,297,897.00) only during the week.
"The breakdown indicates: 1,009,733 litres of stolen crude oil, 304,811 litres of illegally refined AGO and 3,480 litres of DPK, 19,875 litres of PMS and 1,600 litres of engine oil. Additionally, they discovered and destroyed 351 crude oil cooking ovens, 418 dugout pits, 30 boats, 9 speedboats, 160 storage tanks, 721 drums and 95 illegal refining sites
Other items recovered include, pumping machines, drilling machines, tricycles, motorcycles, mobile phones and 42 vehicles.
Additionally, troops recovered large quantities of various arms, such as automatic weapons, RPG tubes, machin guns, locally fabricated guns, and mprovised explosive devices. Also, som cache of live cartridges and assorted ammunition were recovered.
Troops of Armed Forces Nigeria will continue its operations across the country within he ambit of the law giving due regards o human rights in line with global besi practices in orders to safeguard ational security, support our allies, and maintain regional stability.
"We recognize the importance of transparency and ccountability, and we remain committe to keeping the public informed through accurate and timely updates.
"While operational security requires discretion on certain details, we remain focused in our determination to defeat terrorism, banditry and other criminalities in the ountry in order to ensure the safety of all Nigerians.
"Against this backdrop, Nigeria is calling or all law abiding citizens to go about their daily activities without fear of timidations. We solicit continued sharin f credible information with our troops in order to enhance our operations" he noted