The Joint (Military) Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, says the outfit has between January and February 2014 destroyed 308 illegal refineries in the region.
The outgoing Commander, JTF, Major General Iliyasu Abbah, said this during the handover of the mantle of leadership to Major General Emmanuel Atewe, a former Commander of Guards Brigade at the outfit’s headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, on Saturday. He said the outfit within the period also impounded and destroyed 30 barges, 155 smuggling boats, 20 tanker trucks and 566 surface tanks used by suspected oil thieves to transport illegal products.
Abbah, who assumed the command of the outfit on January 10 was transferred to the Army Headquarters as its Military Secretary, a month after. The commander reeled out his achievements within the short period after handing over the JTF to the new Commander (Atewe). Abbah said the outfit destroyed 275 drums of illegally refined products, 273 pumping machines and two outboard engines.
He told officers and men of the JTF that illegal oil bunkering would soon be eradicated with the full cooperation of every stakeholder in the region. He charged officers and men of the JTF to be disciplined, industrious and to shun every temptation that could make them to compromise their professionalism.
