Troops neutralise 106 terrorists, arrest 164 others in one week

BY ANDREW OROLUA

The Nigerian military said on Thursday that the ongoing multi-front military operations are focused on targeting the centre of gravity of terrorists and their cohorts across the country and they neutralised 106 terrorists and arrested 164 other persons this week.

The Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, who disclosed this during the bi-weekly press briefing in Abuja, said the military “are finding them, flushing them out and dismantling their military, administrative and logistics capabilities across the various theatres.”

“Troops are not resting on their oars in the ongoing counter insurgency operations across the country.”

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According to him, troops are “exerting significant military pressure to defeat terrorist and their cohorts in the North East, North West and North Central Zones of the country,”

In the South East Zone, troops are sustaining the momentum against the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their armed Eastern Security Network (ESN) cohorts. While in the South South Zone troops continue to battle perpetrators of crude oil theft.

“In battling the perpetrators of crude oil theft, we have established a unified command structure for security operating in the region,” he said .

“Additionally,” he posited, “we are examining other areas such as: transparency of IOCs, credible metering of oil wells and the tracking of point of loading to destination of the crude oil.”

The military is also galvanising the support of host communities as well as stakeholders in the oil sector. Troops are also reinforcing surveillance efforts on vessels, terminals and oil infrastructures to include jackets that house well heads.

Most importantly, troops are monitoring to ensure that culprits are prosecuted by the prosecuting agencies. It is believe that with these measures emplaced, there would be a significant boost in crude oil output for the nation, he stated

Besides the number of terrorists neutralised, troops also arrested 32 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 103 kidnapped hostages.

In the South South, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Ninety Three Million Five Hundred and Thirty Six Thousand Naira (N793,536,000.00) only.

Troops recovered 125 assorted weapons and 1,522 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: 41 AK47 rifles, one PKT gun, 24 locally fabricated gun, 28 dane guns, one pump action gun, 755 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 623 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 102 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 63 live cartridges, 247 empty case of 7.62mm ammo, 22 AK47 magazines, one baofeng radio, 22 vehicles, 31 motorcycles, 2 bicycles, 10 mobile phones and the sum of N2,956,000.00 only amongst other items.

The troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 20 dugout pits, 24 boats and 34 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 56 cooking ovens, 2 speedboats, 14 pumping machines, 18 drums, 22 vehicles, 4 motorcycles and 36 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 802,200 litres of stolen crude oil, 121,900 litres of illegally refined AGO and 450 litres of DPK.