- The Nigerian navy has announced the commencement of Operation Octopus Grip in Niger Delta
- Abubakar Bello Alhasan, the flag officer commanding, said the operation is going to be in two phases
- Alhasan said the first phase of the operation is mainly on the sea area while the second phase will concentrate on the riverine areas
The Nigerian navy, central naval command has launched “Operation Octopus Grip” phase two with eleven gunboats in Delta state.
According to a report, the Navy appealed to coastal communities to cooperate with it to rid the Niger Delta of crime.
Abubakar Bello Alhasan, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), central naval command said the launching of the operation was in continuation of the first phase earlier launched in October 30.
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Alhasan said the first phase of the operation was mainly on the sea area, while the second phase which was launched simultaneously in all the commands will concentrate on the riverine areas.
He said: ''Like you all know we launched the first phase of this operation on the 30th of October. We started with the sea exercise in Onne.
'' Now we are here to start the riverine operation and we said the exercise was going to be in two phases.
“Today we are going to start the riverine operation with eleven boats from NNS Delta. This will be going on simultaneously in other command as well.’’
Addressing newsmen after the destruction of illegal refineries at Bennett Island, the FOC said the command was ready to rid the waterways off all forms of criminality.
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He added that the navy had identified over 200 illegal refineries in the Niger region, stressing that they were going to go after all of them.
According to him, ''Today you have witnessed our fight against illegal refineries and crude oil theft and you can see that over 20 to 30 hectares of land is been used in that illegal refinery camp.
“You can see that they have destroyed the ecosystem in that place and for this reason we are going to raid them on daily basis.''
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the king of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Pere Williams Ogoba, Oboro II, warned operatives of the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers and all those aiming to attack oil pipelines, to stay off his kingdom.
The monarch, who spoke through the spokesman of the Gbaramatu traditional council, Godspower Gbenekama, urged the federal government to rein the nation’s military in and call them off his area as his kingdom is not at war with the Nigerian state.
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Source: Naija.ng
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