Ongoing military offensives neutralize 73 terrorists, deny oil thieves N1.2bn, says Buba, DMO

Ongoing military operations have killed captured several terrorist, extremist leaders, their facilitators, key associates and numerous of their foot soldiers, the Director Defence Media Operations (DMO) Major General Edward Buba has said.

The ongoing military assaults which Buba described as significant have caused the terrorist and extremist alike now perplexed and suffocated with little or no hiding place.

Over the last one week, the military operations according to the Director have resulted in 73 neutralized terrorists with 182 of them arrested.

Said the DMO spokesman, “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.

“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  our foreign partners.

“The military conducted a surgical operation targeted at the residence of an ISWAP terrorist commander in Niger State.

Several arrest and discoveries were made as a result of the operation”.

He reiterated, “one of the top priorities of the armed forces is to secure the country and protect citizens from harm caused by these terrorist and extremist across the country. “Accordingly, the military is actively working to achieve this mandate.

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

“However, being an ongoing operation 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 terrorist.

“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 terrorist and extremist”.

Now, here is the lowdown of the operations of the last one week: 73 neutralized terrorists with 182 of them arrested.

Troops also arrested 14 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 68 kidnapped hostages.

“In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of One billion ,two Hundred and Twelve Million Forty Six Thousand One Hundred and Forty Naira (N1, 212,046,140.00) only.

“Furthermore, troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition. “The breakdown is as follows: one GPMG, 3 PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, 5 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one barreta 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 boafeng 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 engine 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.

“The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations have prevented these evil elements from accomplishing their strategic objectives.

Buba said this in a statement made available to The First Mail online in Abuja on Thursday.

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