Sunday, September 6, 2015

Air force, Navy hold joint operation against vandals, oil thieves

The Nigerian Navy and the Air Force have concluded a joint operation against criminal activities in the nation’s maritime domain.
The Director of Public Relations and Information of the Air Force, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said in a statement on Sunday that the two services collaborated to fish out illegalities in the nation’s waterways in a joint military operation codenamedOperation Saukan Mikiya.
 
He said illegal activities such as crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which had caused unprecedented environmental damage, loss of revenue and lives to the country would soon be eradicated.
Alonge added, “The illegal activities which include crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism that often result in environmental pollution, loss of lives/property and huge losses in accruable revenue to the Federal Government of Nigeria, would soon become a thing of the past.”
 
He said the operation held from Thursday to Friday around Port Harcourt, Brass River, Bonny River and seawards up to the Exclusive Economic Zone.
He explained that the Navy deployed some boats in strategic locations to monitor and block suspicious vessels along the creeks and the high sea while the NAF deployed its ATR 42 maritime patrol aircraft for the exercise.
 
The spokesman stated that the NNS Okpabannawas deployed as the air control ship for the operation, adding that the motive of the operation was to have enhanced security in the nation’s maritime domain through effective utilisation of the capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force.

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