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Insecurity: Military operations remains focused on terrorists, cohorts — DHQ

The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, reassured on Friday that the ongoing counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations remained focused on fighting the terrorists and their cohorts across the country.

Director of Defence Media Operations, DMO, Major General Edward Buba stated this in a statement made available to Defence Correspondents in Abuja on the report of the ongoing military operations by the Armed Forces of Nigeria, AFN and other security Agencies as of June 7 this year at the various theatres of operations across the six geo-political zones of the country against insurgency activities

According to the statement, “Accordingly, in the last week, the military has been striking the terrorist enclaves with air attacks while the ground forces have exerted significant military power on areas in which the terrorists were still hibernating.

He pointed out that, “during the week under review, troops neutralised 202 and arrested 437 persons.

“Troops also arrested 30 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 209 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Eighteen Million One Hundred and Seventy One Thousand Naira (N718,171,000.00) only.

It added that “the troops recovered 201 assorted weapons and 5,346 assorted ammunition.

According to it, “the breakdown is as follows: 3 G3 rifles, 105 AK47 rifles, 4 AK49 rifles, 17 locally fabricated guns, 37 Dane guns, 9 pump action guns, one fabricated SMG, 2 double barrel guns, 2 single barrel guns, one pistol, 6 locally fabricated pistols, one revolver rifle, one damaged PKT, 4 grenades, one RPG bomb, one charger, and 4 bandoliers.

“The others are 3,232 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 833 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 59 rounds of 9mm ammo, 28 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 1,017 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm, 177 live cartridges, 118 magazines, 9 Baofeng radios, 8 vehicles, 118 motorcycles, 10 vehicles, 3 bicycles, 44 mobile phones, and the sum of N74,702,320.00 only, amongst other items.

It further explained that the troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 28 dugout pits, 15 boats, and 55 storage tanks.

It added that “other items recovered include 7 cooking ovens, 7 vehicles, 8 mobile phones, 2 pumping machines, 2 Baofeng radios, one outboard engine, and 45 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 707,200 litres of stolen crude oil, 149,700 litres of illegally refined AGO, and 400 litres of DPK.

It reiterated that the armed forces remained steadfast in executing their role to restore the safety and security of the citizens of this country, saying that the “troops are in a good place in winning the war.”

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