Mohammed Shosanya
Ahead of the Saturday off season elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ),has warned trouble makers who are planning to disguise in military gear to orchestrate havoc and disrupt elections in some areas.
The military authority also said there would be “injurious consequences” for such action, while announcing that own troops in the last one week have killed 113 terrorists, arrested 300 and 25 perpetrators of oil theft while rescuing 91 kidnapped hostages.
Speaking at the Defence Headquarters,
Abuja during the biweekly press briefing on Thursday,the Director of Defence Media Operation, Major General Edward Buba said, the DHQ is “aware of plans of some to disguise in military gear to cause havoc and disrupt elections in some areas.”
He said that, for the off season elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States this weekend, “The military is deployed in strength for the election to emplace a safe environment for voters to peaceful come out and cast their votes.
“Our message to such a group is that there will be injurious consequences for such an action. The military will not fold it’s arms and watch it’s image dragged to the mud.”
He also stated that, the Armed Forces will continue to exert military pressure on groups that seek to derail any progress towards peace and security in the country.
He added:”There is no doubt that these groups must be defeated and are indeed being defeated. It is for these reason we are inflicting severe damage on the terrorist, insurgents and violent extremist through our operations across the country. Accordingly, we are targeting their leadership, infrastructure and foot soldiers.
“The coordination between the air and ground forces is like never seen before and yielding amazing results and achievements. We are expecting new platforms that would further enhance our capabilities to further root out the terrorist and destroy their military capabilities.”
The operations of the last one week, General Buba said resulted in “113 neutralized terrorists with 300 of them arrested. Troops also arrested 25 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 91 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of N571,793,350.00 only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 129 assorted weapons and 717 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: one Unserviceable AA gun, one RPG tube, 5 RPG bombs, one GT3 rifle, 54 AK47 rifles, 8 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made rifle, 2 pistols, 2 pump action guns, 2 dane guns, 4 locally fabricated pistol, 3 skeleton of AK47 rifles, 9 hand grenades, one unserviceable AK47 rifle, 14 magazines, 321 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 40 live cartridges.
“Others are 53 rounds of 5.45mm x 39mm ammo, 35 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 100 rounds of short gun, 11 rifle body, 7 breech block, 7 rifle butts, 8 rifle muzzles, 9 piston assembles, 210 springs, one drilling machine, hand filling machines, 10 magazine purges, IED making materials, 4 boafeng radios, 15 motorcycles, 20 mobile phones and the sum of N348,200.00 amongst other items.”
He also noted that: “Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 76 dugout pits, 35 boats, 95 storage tanks, 10 vehicles, 129 cooking ovens, 5 pumping machine, 13 speedboats, 6 outboard engine, one vessel, 3 motorcycles and 49 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 514,640 litres of stolen crude oil, 339,315 litres of illegally refined AGO and 775 litres of DPK.”
He emphasized that the “AFN is a discipline and well trained force that conducts its operation within the ampit of laws governing human rights and that of armed conflict. We have rules of engagement that are followed in the course of our actions. Nevertheless, there are standing court martials to put on trial any erring personnel that is found wanting during operations.
“There is therefore the need for us to be circumspect of groups and organisations that embark on misinformation and disinformation to give the military a negative image. They have ulterior motives for their actions. For instance, the circulation old footages of incidences that occurred in yester years that have been tried at court martial as though, they were recent occurrences is mischievous. The public should be weary of such groups and their motive,” he said.