The Nigerian Navy has arrested 37 suspected illegal miners and destroyed an illegal refining site as part of ongoing operations against crude oil theft and economic sabotage in the Niger Delta.
Personnel from the Nigerian Navy Ships (NNS) Pathfinder and Soroh carried out the arrests and destruction during separate operations in Rivers and Bayelsa States under Operation Delta Sentinel.
Director of Naval Information, Captain Abiodun Folorunsho, disclosed that a naval patrol discovered an illegal refinery along the Alakiri River in the Ojekiri area of Rivers State during an anti-crude oil theft operation.
The site contained approximately 10 dugout pits holding about 45,000 litres of stolen crude oil. In line with operational procedures, the illegal facility and the crude oil were destroyed, while the suspects fled upon sighting naval personnel.
In a separate operation, suspected illegal miners were intercepted at Anyama Jetty in Yenagoa attempting to transfer black sand from a wooden boat into two waiting trucks.
Captain Folorunsho confirmed that the miners, along with their trucks, boat and the recovered mineral resources, were handed over to Operation Doo-Akpo, the Bayelsa State security unit, for further investigation.
The operations were conducted in line with Nigeria’s efforts to intensify the fight against crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and other economic crimes within the country’s maritime domain.
Illegal mining and unlicensed oil refining – commonly referred to as “bunkering”- remain persistent challenges in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
Driven by widespread poverty, high unemployment, and entrenched corruption, these activities are damaging the environment, endangering public health, and weakening the nation’s economic stability.
Communities in the region are experiencing extensive ecological harm, with polluted waterways and degraded soil undermining traditional farming and fishing, which have long sustained local populations.
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