By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria have neutralised 86 terrorists while 101 of them were arrested.
Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed this while briefing Journalists on ongoing military operations in different parts of the country in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
According to Buba “in pursuant to their goal, troops in the last one week, focussed on striking the terrorist enclaves from the air attacks with exerted significant military power on areas in which the terrorists are hibernating.”
He said troops also arrested 30 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 21 kidnapped hostages.
General Buba noted that in the Southern region, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of N736,115,470.00 only.
Furthermore, troops recovered 111 assorted weapons and 1,124 assorted ammunition.
The breakdown as follows: 65 AK47 rifles, one HK G3 dun, one G3 rifle, 8 locally fabricated guns, 15 dane guns, 2 fabricated rifle, one locally made pistol, one english pistol, one pump action gun, 2 auto pump action gun, 2 single barrel guns.
Others are: 14 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 993 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 5 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm ammo, 5 rounds of 7.62mm x 39mm, 99 live cartridges, one round of 9mm ammo, one of shotgun cartridge, 2 bandoliers, 2 fabricated swords, 13 magazines, 5 vehicles, 29 motorcycles, 6 bicycles, mobile phones and one GTA radio amongst other items.
General Buba noted that troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 37 dugout pits, 65 boats, 71 storage tanks, 14 vehicles.
Other items recovered were 108 cooking ovens, 4 pump machines, one speedboat and 60 illegal refining sites.
He said that “troops recovered 1,013,530 litres of stolen crude oil, 299,169 litres of illegally refined AGO and 3,158 litres of DPK.”
According to him, the operations clearly indicate that we are hunting the terrorist commanders and their seniors’ leadership.
“Indeed, from their topmost leadership to the lowest commanders are dead men walking and we will stop at nothing until they are dead or surrender.”
“The aim of our ongoing operations remains unchanged and clear even in the new year 2024. Our aim is to find and destroy the terrorist wherever they may be hiding in order to ensure their enduring defeat. This would deny the terrorist the ability to terrorize or hurt citizens across country,” he added.
The Armed Forces have demonstrated commitment by their actions to winning this war as troops will therefore continue to act with tremendous force to achieve the task ahead.
A minute silence was observed for officers that lost their lives in defending their father land and others in the country.
