Military moves against terrorist leaders, kills 50, arrest over 122 others
The Nigerian military said that it has continued to target the leadership and chain of command of the terrorists, insurgents and extremists, undermining the security of citizens in the country.
Director, of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, who made this disclosure in a statement in Abuja, said, the armed forces are on course with its operations, which are yielding encouraging results.
Gen. Buba said, the ongoing counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, is making the country safer each passing day that these evil forces are decimated.
As he said that the operations of the last week, resulted in the killing of 50 terrorists, and the arrest of 122 others.
The statement said: “Troops also arrested 49 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 182 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of One Hundred Twenty-Eight Million Sixty-Six Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Naira (N128,066,825.00) only. Furthermore, troops recovered 66 assorted weapons and 11,474 assorted ammunition. The breakdown is as follows: one conqueror APC, one GPMG, one NSVT gun, one GT3 rifle, 25 AK47 rifles, four pump action guns, two locally made AK47 rifles, three locally made guns, one locally made revolver guns, four locally fabricated pistols and four long dane guns, two locally made hand grenades, one bandolier. Others are 574 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 640 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 150 rounds of 12.7mm ammo, five rounds of 9mm ammo, 10,520 live cartridges, five vehicles, 27 mobile phones, 12 motorcycles, three boating radios, one Motorolla HHR, three bicycles, one solar panel, one solar charger controller, one radio receiver and the sum of N75,909,290.00 amongst other items”.
Troops in the Niger Delta area, he added destroyed 242 dugout pits, 49 boats, 78 storage. tanks, one tricycle, 21 vehicles, 104 cooking ovens, three pumping machines, seven outboard engines and 49 illegal refining sites.
He said the troops recovered 151,850 litres of stolen crude oil, 48,630 litres of illegally refined AGO and 10,125 litres of DPK.
The armed forces, he said, will continue to apply strong military pressure such as has been witnessed in the week.
Stating that the terrorist and their cohorts would continue to suffer heavy casualties, the director concluded that “It is in the interest of terrorists to surrender, as being done in the NE, to avoid eventual destruction”.
