This article is about how tompolo canvasses more crude output as Nigerian Air Force (NAF) destroys illegal refineries and how it will not relent in its efforts to do more.
The Nigerian Air Force said, on Sunday, that its men discovered and destroyed four illegal crude oil refining sites at Krakama and Temakiri in the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers. NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Vice Marshal, Edward Gabkwet, in a statement on Sunday, said the sites were destroyed in an operation conducted on March 1, 2024. Both locations are barely 50 km southwest of Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State. Cotonou boats were at the active illegal refining sites to load crude oil.
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“The two Illegal sites, as well as the boats, were subsequently struck, engulfed in flames, and destroyed. “The armed reconnaissance was also extended to Abisse and Omoma, but only abandoned illegal refining sites were observed,” Gabwet said. He vowed that the military would not relent in efforts to reduce to the barest minimum the activities of crude oil thieves and oil pipeline vandals.
Meanwhile, erstwhile Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, has expressed worry over the state of the national economy just as he appealed to all Nigerians to “guard against greedy saboteurs of the nation’s oil and gas economy.”
Tompolo said he would strive to ensure an increase in the daily crude oil production output by checking oil theft. Tompolo, whose company, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, is engaged by the Federal Government to protect oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, said all must be done to stop economic saboteurs.
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“Our economy is in dire need of survival, so we cannot fold our hands and allow some people to sabotage the nation’s economy because of greed,” he stated. He spoke at the weekend at Oporoza, headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta, where he was conferred with the “Internal Security Meritorious Award” by the Nigeria Union of Journalists. Addressing newsmen, Tompolo acknowledged the pivotal role of the media in promoting peace and stabilising democracy in the country.