Troops Arrest 182 Terrorists, Kill 73 in One Week – General Buba

Troops Arrest 182 Terrorists, Kill 73 in One Week – General Buba

Olaitan Ogundele

In one week, troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) have killed 73 terrorists and arrested 182 across Nigeria, according to Major General Edward Buba, the Director of Defence Media Operation (DMO).

He also disclosed that troops arrested 14 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 68 kidnapped hostages within the time under review.

During the biweekly media briefing on troops’ operational activities at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja on Thursday, Major General Edward Buba, the Director of Defence Media Operation (DMO), addressed newsmen. He stated that troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of N1,212,046,140.00 only.

He said “The top priorities of the armed forces is to secure the country and protect citizens from harm caused by these terrorists and extremists across the country.”

He stated that the military is actively working to achieve this mandate.

He said further, “It is worthy of mention that the armed forces are in the lead in the ongoing country insurgency and counter-terrorist operations in the country.

“Significantly, these operations have killed or captured several terrorists, extremist leaders, their facilitators, key associates and numerous of their foot soldiers.

“Relatedly, the ongoing surgical operations recently embarked upon have thrown these evil elements into a state of complete disarray due to the precision of the operations.

“The terrorists and extremists alike are now perplexed and suffocated with little or no hiding place. It is now a question of sooner than later, before it would be too late for most of them.”

During the week and in collaboration with foreign partners, General Buba explained that, “The military conducted a surgical operation targeted at the residence of an ISWAP terrorist commander in Niger State.”

Several arrests and discoveries, he said, were made as a result of the operation.

However, being an ongoing operation, he noted that not much can be revealed at this stage.

“Nevertheless, one thing is certain, the operation is just one of several others to flush out the terrorists. The message is clear to all. You are either on the side of Nigerians and the armed forces, or against us in the fight against terrorists and extremists.”

General Buba revealed that troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition. These includes one GPMG, 3 PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, 5 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one beretta pistols, 4 locally made pistols, 5 RPG bombs, 5 pu,p action gus, one short gun, one hand grenade, 2 dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.

“Others are 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazine, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radio, one baofeng radio and the sum of N3,308,700.00 amongst other items.

“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 128 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, 4 outboard engines and 63 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,450 litres of DPK and 45,000 litres of PMS.”

This is as he declared that, the ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations have prevented these evil elements from accomplishing their strategic objectives.

“The military will continue to degrade their ability to carry out small scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities,” he stated.