The armed forces counter insurgency operations in the South East theatre have dealt significant blows to the separatists’ terrorists capabilities in the region, operations spokesperson has said.
Director of Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a press briefing on the operations of the military. He said the operations have led to the arrests of an IPOB terrorists leader Pius Iguh and its Commander Emmanuel Onwugu within the week.
He explained that in continuation of its intense operations in South East theatre,
troops at FOB Orsu in a sting operation arrested the IPOB terrorist leader Pius Iguh, a founding father of ESN group in Orsu general area of Imo State.
Similarly, troops at FOB Amaruku in a raid arrested another IPOB terrorist commander who has been identified as Emmanuel Onwugu. He was arrested in Mbano LGA of Abia State.
In a related development, troops and security forces in a combined sting operation also arrested a notorious cult leader named Ifeanyi Rock with 10 of his combatants in Arochukwu in Abia State.
He said that across the country, during the week under review, “troops neutralised 140 terrorists and arrested 135 others. Troops also arrested 18 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 76 kidnapped hostages.
“In the South South Zone where the fight is against crude oil theives, “troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Seven Hundred and Fifty One Million Eight Hundred and Eighty Six Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty Naira (N1,751,886,550.00) only.”
“Furthermore, troops recovered 241 assorted weapons and 3,254 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: 141 AK47 rifles, one PKT gun, 2 FN rifles, 17 fabricated rifles, 26 dane guns, 13 pump action guns, 4 locally made pistols, one barreta pistol, 2 bayonets and 42 AK47 magazines.
“Others are: 2,016 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 970 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 33 rounds 7.62 x 54mm ammo, 76 rounds of 9mm ammo, 113 live cartridges, 2 baofeng radios, 3 vehicles, 31 motorcycles, 18 mobile phones and the sum of N79,052,150.00 and 19$ only amongst other items.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 33 crude oil cooking ovens, 19 dugout pits, 41 boats, 70 drums, 22 storage tanks and 47 illegal refining sites .Other items recovered include 13 speedboats, one tricycle, 4 motorcycles, 3 vehicles among others. Troops recovered 1,122,710 litres of stolen crude oil and 557,210 litres of illegally refined AGO.”
Major General Buba assured the public that the military will defeat the terrorist on the battlefield and in their hiding places so that the country can flourish again.
“We call on citizens to see themselves as the outstretched arm of the military and never to give terrorism any oxygen to thrive in our nation.”
Fielding questions on why there are huge arms and ammunition in the hands of Non government actors, the director blamed the unabated arms struggle in the Sahel region for the proliferation of arm in Nigeria.
He also said that some of the arms now found with terrorists were seized from troops in arms bush or during attacks which are not rule out in battlefield. He added that even when such occured troops fight back to recover seized weapons .