Weekly update: Troops Neutralise 96 Terrorists

Nigerian troops have neutralised 96 terrorists and arrested 227 persons during the week under review.

In a statement, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba said that “troops also arrested 45 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 157 kidnapped hostages”.

General Buba said that “the arrested terrorist commander is a close associate of a wanted high profile terrorist leader known as Kachalla Boka”.

” The arrest has been rewarding in intelligence value as he is cooperating and providing troops with much needed intelligence for further operations”, he added.

Additionally, troops in the NC operational theatre, arrested a notorious terrorist commander identified as Usman Maisaje.

According to him, in the South South region, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Twelve Million Sixty Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Naira (N712,065,450.00) only.

He noted that troops are actively disrupting the operational capabilities of terrorists through ongoing operation across the country.

Significantly, troops eliminated five IPOB/ ESN terrorist leaders during the week.

Furthermore, troops recovered 71 assorted weapons and 1,463 assorted ammunition.

The breakdown as follows: 50 AK47 rifles, 16 fabricated rifles, 5 dane guns, 5 pump action guns, 5 locally made pistols, one revolver pistol and 16 AK47 magazines.

Others are: 784 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 403 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 164 rounds 7.62 x 39mm ammo, 53 rounds of 9mm ammo, 67 live cartridges, one baofeng radio, 19 vehicles, 23 motorcycles, 35 mobile phones and the sum of N4,087,630.00 and 46,000 cfa only amongst other items.

Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 4 dugout pits, 48 boats, 52 drums and 38 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 55 cooking ovens, 2 speedboats, one tricycle, 6 mobile phones, 6 vehicles and 60 illegal refining sites.

Troops recovered 712,535 litres of stolen crude oil and 76,800 litres of illegally refined AGO.7. The military will not relent on its plan to kill terrorists and destroy the infrastructure that support them.

“We will increasingly degrade the terrorist military capability and effectiveness through our operations”, he said.

Dominica Nwabufo