Terrorists have intensified recruitment drive online – Nigerian Military raises alarm

The military says it has uncovered a recruitment drive on social media by terrorists, particularly the ISWAP terrorist group.

It vowed that it would sustain the offensives to eliminate all threats by the terrorists.

Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj Gen Edward Buba, in a statement on Saturday, affirmed that troops operations had severely depleted their ranks and files.

According to Buba, “synchronized air strikes by the air force, as well as ground operations by ground forces had dislodged terrorists from their enclaves, killing several of them.”

The air component of Operation HADIN KAI, he said, on 6 Nov 24, conducted targeted air strikes on terrorists located at Kwallaram and Arainna Ciki islands in Borno State, adding that the strikes resulted in the neutralization of over 70 extremist members.

Buba further explained that the troops neutralised 169 and arrested 641 persons across the country.

According to him, troops also arrested 40 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 181 kidnapped hostages, pointing out that in the South-South, troops foiled oil theft of estimated sum of One Billion, Four Hundred and Two Million, Nine Hundred and One Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira (N1,402,001,900.00) only.

The troops, he said, recovered 192 assorted weapons and 2,970 assorted ammunition.

The breakdown is: 106 AK-47 rifles, 38 fabricated rifles, 26 dane guns, one FN rifle, 3 fabricated revolver pistols, 11 locally made pistols, 5 pump action guns, one dummy AK-47 rifle and one unexploded RPG bomb.

Others are 1,410 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,074 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 67 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 130 rounds of 108mm, 101 rounds of 9mm ammo, 146 live cartridges, 2 baofeng radios, 7 vehicles, 29 motorcycles, 40 mobile phones and the sum of N729,000.00, among other items.

According to the Director, “Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 20 crude oil cooking ovens, 2 dugout pits, 42 boats, 7 reservoirs, 5 drums, 50 storage tanks and 83 illegal refining sites.

“Other items recovered include 3 pumping machines, 3 outboard engines, one generator set, one speedboat, 8 motorcycles, 3 mobile phones, 3 vehicles, among others.

“Troops recovered 914,445 litres of stolen crude oil, 537,325 litres of illegally refined AGO and 1,285 litres of PMS.”