The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Thursday declared that there would be no going back in the ongoing military operations against insurgency activities in the six geo-political zones of the country but assured that the troops would continue to take great measures to prevent civilian casualties.
Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Edward Buba stated this while speaking at the bi-weekly briefing of the defence correspondents on the ongoing military operations of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) and other security agencies in the various theatres of operations across the country against insurgency activities said that “protecting civilians remains a vital part of our operations to promote greater security for all Nigerians.”
Buba who stated that the armed forces was very concerned about the issues of civilian casualties in operations, a situation which it viewed as tragic and unwanted assured that the military was determined to deal with the situation properly and make improvement from from experiences.
According to him, “the ongoing military operations across the country are in support of our national security interest. The operations are integral to the plan of focusing military pressure on the terrorists, insurgents and extremists in order to dismantle and destroy them or force them to submission.
“Accordingly, the military remains focused on its core mission of creating a safe and secure environment for citizens by the total destruction of threats perpetrating insecurity in the country.
“There is significant media attention owing to the mishap that occurred in Kaduna as a result of a drone strike. The military stands with all those grieving as a result of the drone strike and expresses our heartfelt condolences as a force over the losses.
“We pray for eternal peace for their souls. The incident is being investigated and the outcome of the investigation would go a long way in identifying areas of improvement to forestry future occurrences.
“The operations of the week in focus, resulted in 80 neutralised terrorists, while 304 of them were arrested.
“Troops also arrested 152 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 44 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of N347,173,500.00 only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 112 assorted weapons and 898 assorted ammunition.
“The breakdown is as follows: 2 GPMG, one HK21 gun, 14 AK47 rifles, 8 pump action guns, 4 locally fabricated rifles, 8 locally made pistols, 5 dane guns, 239 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 431 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 4 rounds of 9mm ammo, 52 live cartridges.
“Others are 5 magazines loaded with 128 rounds of 7.62mm special, 6 vehicles, 28 mobile phones, 12 motorcycles, one laptop and the sum of N782,790.00 amongst other items.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area destroyed 8 dugout pits, 11 boats, 46 storage tanks, 7 vehicles, 84 cooking ovens, 356 drums, one outboard engine, one pumping machine and 20 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 81,000 litres of stolen crude oil, 239,500 litres of illegally refined AGO, 5,000 litres of DPK and 10,500 litres of PMS.”
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