Nigerian Navy has again warned suspected oil thieves and other criminal elements in the Niger Delta region to repent, saying that anyone caught in its new strategy will be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The Flag Officer Commanding of the Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Saidu Garba, who reiterated the warning on Wednesday, said the military was winning the war against criminals in the region.

Speaking during an inspection tour of facilities under the Nigerian Navy Ship, Delta, in Warri, Garba lauded the reduction in crude oil theft and illegal oil refining in the region.

The naval chief, who was conducted round the facilities by the Commander of the NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu,  and other senior military officers, urged the criminal elements to turn to productive venture in their own interest.

Garba said, “We are advising them to engage in productive ventures that will enable them to make clean money that will allow them to live peacefully because these criminals are unable to enjoy whatever illicit gains they make through criminality because they still have to be living in hiding.

“They should come out, engage in productive and legal ventures because anyone we catch breaking the law will certainly face the law.”

The FOC stated that the new strategies which the command had adopted had led to the decrease in the rising cases of oil theft and robberies in the waterways, adding that his men would sustain the strategies in the interest of the nation.

He said, “As you know, crude oil theft and other such criminal activities have reduced as a result of a number of measures put in place, one of which is the permanent operation at sea, which is called Operation Tsare-Teku. Tsare-Teku maintains a number of vessels at sea at all times.

“The second one is the Swamp bogey operation, whereby we go around demolishing all illegal infrastructures that have been put in place for illegal oil production. The third one is the choke-point regime, in which we have our houseboats at strategic points within the inner waterways, which are the backwaters, ensuring there are no illegal movements of any kind of illegally produced products in that general area.

“We’ve been able to sustain these three and with them, we have been able to curtail flow of illicit oil activities in our area of responsibility.”

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