The Nigerian Navy said it has averted pirate attack on three merchant vessels, namely MV MOXON, MT AFRICAN BEAUTY and MT MADONA. The vessels were attacked around Brass waterways in Bayelsa State on 3 and 4 May 2016. The pirates made spirited effort to seize the vessels but the timely response of the special protective team deployed by the Nigerian Navy successfully dislodged the pirates who fled to evade arrest.

In a related development, the Naval patrol team deployed by NNS PATHFINDER on 4 May 2016 discovered and destroyed two active illegal crude oil refineries located at NAFCON creek. The refineries had 7 storage tanks containing about 10,000 litres of stolen crude oil and 20,000 litres of illegally refined AGO. This is even as the patrol team destroyed a warehouse used by the criminals to hide illegally refined products. The massive warehouse located at Ikpokiri community in Rivers State had huge plastic tanks containing suspected illegally refined AGO.

Consequently, the new tactics of using warehouses by the crude oil thieves has been condemned by the Navy which has warned owners of warehouses in the Niger Delta area to avoid the temptation of leasing out their properties to the criminals. “The Service will not be held responsible for damages done to the properties in the course of the current clampdown on crude oil theft, vandalism and piracy in the area”, the Navy said.