The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Friday said it arrested 571 suspected vandals and destroyed 71 illegal refineries nationwide within the last 12 months.

NSCDC’s Commandant General, Ahmed Audi, said this in an interview in Abuja.

Mr Audi said of the 571 arrested vandals, 512 were being prosecuted while 121 had been convicted and serving various jail terms in various correctional centres in the country.

He said the result recorded by the corps was part of the NSNSC’s commitment toward ensuring pipelines were adequately protected against criminal act.

He, however, said the growing trend of illegal refineries and re-emergence of already destroyed ones was a major concern to the Federal Government.

“What is disturbing is the issue of illegal refineries; you destroy one today, tomorrow you will see another one. In fact, the one you had destroyed reincarnates in about a week. However, the corps has put in place both kinetic and non-kinetic measures to provide safety and security for our oil installations and other critical infrastructure in Nigeria.

“So far, we have seen that what we have adopted is working, so next year we will try to work seriously on the non-kinetic approach of cautioning Nigerians, engaging in advocacy, discussions with communities, youths and traditional rulers amongst others.

“We have realised that oil theft is a syndicated crime. So, we will attack the root cause, we have written advising state governments on how to adopt some form of non-kinetic approaches to provide solutions to this menace,” Mr Audi said.

(NAN)