Mohammed Shosanya
The Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Edward Buba has disclosed that troops in the last one week killed 212 terrorists, arrested 252 and rescued 244 victims.
He also stated that troops have denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of N1,050,715,260.00 only in the South South (SS) geo-polotical region.
He said this on Thursday, at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), during the defence media briefing on troops operational successes across the country.
According to him, “During the week under review, toops neutralized 212 and arrested 252 persons.
“Troops also arrested 29 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 244 kidnapped hostages.In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of N1,050,715,260.00 only.
Besides,the troops recovered 223 assorted weapons and 2,756 assorted ammunition.”
The breakdown, according to General Buba is as follows, “3 M56 rifles, 115 AK47 rifles, 3 PKT gun, 24 locally fabricated gun, 36 dane guns, 7 locally fabricated pistols, one pfabricated revolver pistol, 3 locally made single barrel guns, 2 hand grenades and one locally made explosive.”
Others include;1,716 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 494 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 60 rounds of 7.62 x 25mm ammo, 290 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm ammo, 81 rounds of 9mm ammo, 2 live cartridges, 16 magazines, 3 M56 rifles magazines, one HH radio, 5 vehicles, 14 motorcycles, 15 mobile phones and the sum of N857,960.00 amongst other items.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 102 dugout pits, 41 boats, 36 storage tanks and 8 vehicles. Other items recovered incl 39 cooking ovens, 6 pumping machines and 61 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 944,700 litres of stolen crude oil, 171,060 litres of illegally refined AGO and 1,500 litres of DPK.
“The foregoing indicates that troops are weathering the storm through offensive posture and improved understanding of modus operandi of the adversary. Accordingly, we are doing our best to rescue other hostages in terrorist captivity.”
The armed force,he said,is bent on sustaining the winning ways of our operational engagements as demonstrated with the recent rescue of 16 and 137 hostages in Sokoto and Kaduna States, respectively.
“The rescue of these hostages is indicative of a better understanding of the dynamics of what we are dealing with ,and to address the issue in a much safer manner.
“The rescue operations was based on collaboration between the military working with local authorities and government agencies across the country, in a coordinated approach.
“The success demonstrates the unwavering commitment of the armed forces to secure and protect the citizens against harm and acts of terror.
“And the pressure of military operations created a significant level of distress both for the terrorist and the children. Given the situation, troops line of interest was the children.
“The level of distressed created by the children was sufficient enough for troops to exploit in their rescue. Additionally, cursory operations in the general areas by troops culminated in the neutralization of several terrorist leaders and commanders in OP HADARIN DAJI theatre of operation.
The Director also assured that troops would also continue to eliminate threats posed by these terrorist and their cohorts.
However, he called on citizens to always remember that they are the first line of intelligence.