The Nigerian Armed Forces says on Friday that additional operational adjustments have been made to prioritize protection for farmers to ensure a successful rainy season farming.
This is contained in a statement by
the Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba. He, however, did not elaborate on the operational adjustments which is likely to be in respond to persistent complaints by farmers across the country of terrorist and kidnapper attacks on their farms including some remote villages, even in South South region that are now abandoning their farms for fear of being killed or kidnapped.
More so, as the impacts of the persistence attacks on farmers are already telling by the noticeable reduction in foodstuffs supplies to most towns’ markets with the attendance price increases.
The Director said the armed forces has intensified intelligence collection effort targeted at hunting terrorist and striking them where they maybe hiding and hibernating across the country.
“The aim is to kill this terrorist and the infrastructure that supports them,” he added. He said that during the week, between Saturday June 15 and Friday June 21, 2024 under review, troops neutralised 220 and arrested 395 persons.
“Troops also arrested 55 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 202 kidnapped hostages. In the South South Zone, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Eight Hundred and Sixty Million One Hundred and Fifty One Thousand Seven Hundred Naira (N1,860,151,700.00) only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 432 assorted weapons and 9,004 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: 3 PKT guns, one G3 rifle, 83 AK47 rifles, 18 locally fabricated gun, 16 dane guns, 2 pump action guns, 2 double barrel guns, 2 single barrel guns, 8 locally fabricated pistols, 2 revolver rifles, one hand grenades, 14 RPG bombs, one RPG launcher, 2 tear gas launchers, 234 smoke grenades and one bandolier.
“Others are: 5,893 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 2,064 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 401 rounds of 9mm ammo, 200 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 154 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm, 195 live cartridges, 17 magazines, 3 baofeng radios, 8 vehicles, 32 motorcycles, 59 mobile phones and the sum of N813,550.00 only amongst other items.”
Troops in the Niger Delta area where economic sabotage is relatively high due to illegal oil refining, discovered and destroyed 51 dugout pits, 38 boats and 51 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 215 cooking ovens, 2 speedboats, 44 drums, 3 tug boats, 3 barges, 4 wheelbarrows, one outboard engine, 15 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 6 mobile phones and 105 illegal refining sites.
“Troops recovered 1,099,860 litres of stolen crude oil, 1,101,700 litres of illegally refined AGO, 27350 litres of DPK and 150 litres of PMS.”
He said troops will continue to employed significant firepower to neutralize terrorists and disrupt their activities across the country adding that winning the war against the terrorist is non negotiable.