There are hundreds of the facilities; we acted on tip off to uncover them -JTF

It is now clear that petroleum products consumed in the country are not only those imported or refined in the refineries as security operatives uncovered several refining points operated illegally in the Niger Delta.

THE discovery of about one hundred and fifty illegal crude oil refining points in Rivers State two weeks ago shocked all parts of the state.

Governor Rotimi Amechi(in white and black jacket) with members of JTF on inspection of one of the illegal refineries.

Until the discovery, the understanding was that militants merely perforate pipelines for crude which they later sell in their condensate state to motorists and Okada riders or, in some cases, they compel filling stations to discharge some quantities of their petroleum products to them in drums which they later used to mix their condensate products before pushing to market in jerry cans.

So you can imagine the shock when the news hit the state that the Joint Task Force, JTF, had discovered illegal refining points stretching about four kilometers. Governor Rotimi Amaechi, to be sure of what he heard, raced to the spot last Sunday. And true to the claim by the JTF, petroleum products were actually being processed at various spots in the long stretch of land in B Dere community. The security body told the governor it had arrested about twenty persons in connection with the refining points. At press time, they were still singing.

Vandalized oil pipelines

Those behind the refining points vandalized oil pipelines and then used holes and pipes to channel the content to trenches from where they later carried out other operations on the products before fetching them into drums and other containers. Amaechi stood agape when this whole process was explained to him. He later ordered the demolition of all the refining points in the area, an order that was immediately executed by the chairman of the local government council.

Sunday Vanguard later had a chat with the media spokesman of the JTF and army PRO in the state, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa on the incident. According to him, the JTF acted on tip off to discover the place. Reports from the locals indicated that the refining points had been in existence for about three months. Musa relied on findings from investigation to tell details of how they operated.

"We acted on tip off. There are hundreds of illegal local refining points close to either refinery pipelines or existing pipelines belonging to one of the oil majors. Some of the pipelines were ruptured by militants or illegal oil bunkerers. Then, they use crude method to refine and later sell to the public. Let us use this opportunity to correct earlier reports that we discovered illegal refineries. They are refining points and not refineries", the JTF PRO stated. He explained that those arrested were still being thoroughly interrogated.

The development has shown that illegal bunkering has been taken to another level in the region. It has gone beyond scooping products from ruptured oil pipelines to actual refining of the crude using local means. Like the JTF spokesman said, to effectively address this ugly development, which is not only a major threat to lives but also to machines of all kinds that use petroleum products, locals have to cooperate with security operatives. They should be ready to assist with useful information. Several lives were lost sometime ago in the state to adulterated kerosene which could have come from illegal refining spots of this nature.

Musa stated that the security body would not relent in the move to rid the state of illegal bunkers; cultists, etc, that have chosen to make the state unsafe for responsible residents. Meanwhile, the JTF arrested twenty suspected cultists/militants at Abuja waterfront and NPA dockyard last week after an exchange of fire with the militants that lasted several hours.

One of the trenches where the crude empties into

Sunday Vanguard gathered some cultists locked in rival war had invaded the waterfront and dockyard, shooting sporadically before the JTF waded in. In the ensuing battle, two of the cultists were reportedly killed while twenty were arrested. The JTF also demolished a drinking spot allegedly belonging to a notable cultist in the Niger Delta. They said he was using the place for initiation. Calm had hardly returned to the Abuja water front and NPA dockyard venues of the sporadic shootings and subsequent arrest when Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, (MEND), a militant body in the region, last Wednesday, issued a statement, alleging that the JTF had summarily executed the twenty people they arrested during the exchange of fire between the security body and the militants

When confronted with the allegation, Brigade commander, Port Harcourt army barracks and head of the JTF in the state, Brig General Sarki Yarki Bello, said it was untrue, dismissing the claim as mere propaganda by the militants against the operations of the JTF. "If we want to take that illegal step, i.e. killing them, we would not have mentioned the arrest. As a lawyer I can't be involved in extra judicial killing. It is just a figment of imagination. If we had planned to kill we would not have mentioned that we arrested this number that Tuesday", he told Sunday Vanguard.

He continued: "As an officer of the Nigerian Army, we have been trained over the years to conduct our operations in accordance with all conventions Nigeria is a signatory to. For one to be accused of getting involved in extra judicial killing is really funny. No officer of the Nigerian army will do this. Simply, what I am saying is that we observe all the laws that govern conduct of such operations. And if we had wanted to do any extra judicial killing, we would not have allowed those arrested to be filmed by television that Tuesday. Match the faces of those you saw that Tuesday and the ones here now. And you see that they are all alive.

He also reacted to earlier claim that militants killed by the JTF about two weeks ago around Alakiri were on a peace mission. "We lost a naval personnel and one other was wounded in that Alakiri incident. Would we have inflicted that kind of loss on ourselves? It was a chance encounter and exchange of fire followed. And we had an upper hand. We recovered a GPMG and other ammunition from the hoodlums.

So what form of peace mission were they on? It would be recalled that two weeks ago the JTF sunk two speeds belonging to militants. All the occupants reportedly died in the incident.