By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said it would join hands with the Zamfara State Government to tackle banditry in the state.
The DHQ’s reaction followed earlier claims by the State Governor, Mr Dauda Lawal that the police and the military were not helping in the fight against Banditry in the state.
Briefing Defence Correspondents in Abuja, Director of Defence media Operations, Major General Edward Buba said without the Governor and the people of Zamfara state’s cooperation, the war on banditry can never be won.
“The military will not join issues with the Governor, rather we choose the part of cooperation over conflict with the state Governor and look forward to constructively engage with him on these matters”, he said.
He said troops of Operation Hadarin Daji deployed to Zamfara State have lost 9 personnel so far in the month of June 2024. These soldiers killed in action are a painful testament of our tireless efforts, commitment and sacrifice to restoring peace and security in the state.
He noted that nevertheless, the allegations against the military and security forces operating in the state really needs to be analysed impartially and understood. The situation underscores the fact that, winning the war without the support of the people of the state is close to impossible.
“Interestingly, despite the state being described as the epicentre of kidnapping. The state has no internal security operation outfit to coordinate activities of security agencies operating in the state, as is found in other states. This situation leaves much to be desired”.
This is even as the Zamfara State Police Commissioner, Muhammad Dalijan, recently announced the arrest of a member of the State House of Assembly and a former local government chairman in connection with banditry in the state, alluding to the military high command stance.
Meanwhile, during the week under review, troops neutralised 197 and arrested 310 persons, said General Buba.
He also said troops also arrested 22 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 251 kidnapped hostages.
“In the South South, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Sixty Five Million Six Hundred and Fifty Four Thousand One Hundred Naira (N765,654,100.00) only.
He noted that the armed forces understands that the terrorists exist for the sake of war, and therefore for the sake of peace they must be eliminated.
“Our war effort is therefore designed and crafted to defeat and destroy the terrorist as well as dismantle their terror infrastructure across the country”, he said.
He posited that “momentum is crucial to our operations and it is the reason we take the fight to the enemy and allow them no respite. Accordingly, our operations are focussed on our war efforts, our mobilization and air strikes to destroy the terrorists”.
He said that sequel to the killings of 5 personnel at the checkpoint in Abia, troops conducted several intelligence based operations that led to the discovery and destruction of several IPOB/ESN terrorists camps across the region such as at Igboro Forest in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State among others.
Still on the troops onslaught in the past week, General Buba said 180 assorted weapons were recovered and 5,123 assorted ammunition.
“The breakdown as follows 2 PKT guns, one fabricated Arty gun, one G3 rifle, 73 AK47 rifles, 17 locally fabricated gun, 21 dane guns, 2 pump action guns, 2 revolver rifles, one short dane gun, 3 double barrel guns, 3 single barrel guns, one pistol, 4 locally fabricated pistols, 5 fabricated baretta pistols, one berretta pistol, one jojef magnum pump action gun, one Exp 64 semi auto rifle, 10 hand grenades, 3 60mm mortar bombs, bandoliers and 10 fabricated Arty bombs.
“Others are: 3,207 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,022 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 13 rounds of 9mm ammo, 243 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 240 rounds of 7.62
x 51mm, 132 rounds of 5.56 x 54mm ammo, 143 live cartridges, 59 magazines,
one pistol magazine, one ECOME HH radio, 4 baofeng radios, 4 vehicles, 47 motorcycles, 21 mobile phones and the sum of N1,236,200.00 as well as
CFA 608,000.00 only amongst other items.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 29 dugout pits, 22 boats and 26 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 66 cooking ovens, 85 drums, 8 vehicles, 3 mobile phones and 43 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 728,360 litres of stolen crude oil, 143,450 litres of illegally refined AGO, 1,100 litres of DPK
and 18,750 litres of PMS.”
