Joint Task Force (JTF)codenamed ‘Operation Restore Hope’ said it has strengthened its intelligence to checkmate oil theft in the Niger Delta region, even as it has destroyed three new illegal local refineries operating in Egbematoro, Bayelsa State.
It has also uncovered and destroyed over 100 illegal refineries in both Bayelsa and Delta states.
Coordinator of the MediaCampaign Centre for JTF, Lt-Col. Rabe Abubakar, who made the disclosure, said JTF was in the region to restore sanity so that legal businesses could thrive.
Besides, he said JTF has smashed a five-man inter-state armed robbery gang, which specialises in dispossessing unsuspected passengers of cash and personal belongings.
Daily Independent gathered that members of the gang, who were alleged to be in possession of undisclosed huge sum of money, were arrested by the JTF personnel at Porbeni camp, Yenegoa following a report by a victim, who was recently robbed of her valuables at gun point.
JTF Commander, Brig-Gen Wuyep Rimtip, while commenting on the incident in Warri, urged members of the public to give maximum cooperation to JTF to enable it carry out its job effectively, assuring that it would continue to protect lives and property of inhabitants in the area.
Abubakar said JTF in its effort at ensure peace in communities of the Niger Delta region has restored peace and normalcy in the troubled Egbematoro 1 and 2 communities in Bayelsa State, adding that it was able to quell a impending crisis in the area over a chieftaincy tussled between a sitting traditional ruler and his suppose subject over a Deawoo company arrival in the area, adding that JTF recovered after a fight by the indigenes, which resulted to loss of lives and property one dune gun and some ammunition.