Troops Neutralise 50 Terrorists, arrest 114
The Nigerian troops have neutralised 50 terrorists while 114 of them were arrested in one week.
The Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed this when briefing journalists on ongoing military operations in different parts of the country in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
General Buba said that“‘troops also arrested 19 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 49 kidnapped hostages”.
According to him, in the South-South region, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Nine Hundred and Sixty Eight Million One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Fifty Naira (N968,160,050.00) only.
Furthermore, troops recovered 65 assorted weapons and 400 assorted ammunition.
He noted that the breakdown is as follows: 25 AK47 rifles, 4 locally fabricated rifles, 4 pistols, 6 pump action guns, 12 Dane guns, and 3 AK47 rifles loaded with 50 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo among others.
The Director also noted that among the central issues on the ground, in terms of setting security conditions and overcoming instability are the safe havens of some of these violent extremist groups that have existed for many years.
Accordingly, the ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations are designed to ensure that uncertainty is replaced with certainty.
General Buba said that “these safe havens in effect provided a support base for insurgent activities”.
For instance, ‘these safe havens provide the flow of funding, material, weapons, fighters, command and control that supports terrorism and insurgency confronting us. There are safe havens spread across various theatres ranging from the tumbuns in the North East to other locations such as national parks, game reserves and forests across the country,” he added.
He said that the military has identified several of these safe havens and operations are targeted towards ensuring that they are completely dismantled.
Recently, one of the safe havens in Aku Forest in Okigwe LGA of Imo State in the SE was invaded. Troops found unspeakable and unprintable activities going on in the camp.
According to him, these extremists are cannibals feasting on fellow humans and slaughtering them for other devilish acts.
Similarly, troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 54 dugout pits, 66 boats, 138 storage tanks, 253 cooking ovens, 2 pumping machines, 8 speedboats, 17 hoses, 18 drums, 2 cylinders and 53 illegal refining sites.
Troops recovered 983,350 litres of stolen crude oil, 144,980 litres of illegally refined AGO and 71,650 litres of DPK8.
He stressed that it is clear that some of the safe havens from which these insurgents and terrorists operate often extend across the borders with other countries, thereby making it a regional issue.
Nevertheless, the objective of ongoing operations is to ensure these safe havens are completely destroyed within the shores of the country.
According to him, the military will continue to fine-tune its operations to ensure maximum protection of citizens and restore security across the country.
“We are getting it right and continue to encourage citizens that know something to say something so that we can do something about it. Together we win the fight”, he said.
The Armed Forces is constantly re-strategizing and modifying its operations to overcome the changes in tactics of the extremists operating across the country.
One minute silence was observed for fallen heroes
Dominica Nwabufo
