Nigerian troops have neutralized 43 terrorists, arrested 115 others and recovered 87 assorted weapons and 666 assorted ammunitions.
In a statement by the Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, it said “the combat teams neutralised several of the terrorist’s leadership and their foot soldiers as well as degraded their military capabilities.”
According to him, during the week in focus, troops conducted ambushes, raids fighting patrols and other forms of offensives against the terrorist.
He said that “troops are hunting terrorist in their hiding places and conducting targeted offensives against the them to destroy them.”
“Furthermore, troops arrested 17 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 39 kidnapped hostages.”
According to him, in the South South region, troops denied the oil theft of an estimated sum of One Hundred and Fifty-Nine Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand, Six Hundred and Twenty Naira (N159,652,620.00) only.
The breakdown of weapons and other items recovered are as follows: “11 AK47 rifles, one FN rifles, 2 pump action guns, 8 locally fabricated guns, 11 dane guns, 2 locally fabricated pistols, one macarrol pistol, one berretta pistol, one fabricated SMG, one locally made mortar with one empty bomb, 4 IEDs, 17 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 592 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 4 rounds of 7.5mm ammo, one round of 9mm ammo and 36 live cartridges.
“Others are 18 empty cases of 7.62mm special, 2 bandolier, 13 magazines, 6 vehicles, 21 mobile phones, 9 motorcycles, 15 bicycles, 2 tricycles, 5 boafeng HH radios and the sum of N1,601,370.00 amongst other items.”
He added that troops in the Niger Delta area destroyed 20 dugout pits, 29 boats, 31 storage tanks, one tricycle and 3 vehicles.
Other items recovered include 24 cooking ovens, 3 pump machines and 25 illegal refining sites.
Troops recovered 315,700 litres of stolen crude oil, 1,200 litres of illegally refined AGO and 3,158 litres of DPK.8.
He called on the public to continue to act responsibly and be forthcoming for the progress of the nation.
“Citizens are urged to see themselves as the outstretched arm of the military in this war and to create conditions that would hasten victory,” he added.
