The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations across Nigeria by the military resulted in the arrest of 190 terrorists and the death of 67 others in combat this week, the military has said.
Military operations ranging from fighting patrols, ambushes, raids to air interdictions against the insurgents and violent extremism in the week also led to the arrest of 57 perpetrators of oil theft and the rescued of 47 kidnapped hostages.
This is contained in a statement by Director of Defence Media Operations (DMO) Major General Edward Buba in Abuja on Friday.
He said that in the South South Zone of the country where troops are fighting to prevent the violent extremists and crude oil thefts of the country major product substantial achievements are being recorded.
For instance,troops denied oil theft access to crude oil estimated at “the sum of Seven Hundred and Twenty Seven Million Seven Hundred and Eighty Six thousand Eight Hundred Naira (N727, 786,800.00) only within the week”
Furthermore, troops recovered 112 assorted weapons and 989 assorted ammunition from insurgents.
The breakdown as follows: one GT3 rifle, 42 AK47 rifles, 11 locally fabricated rifles, 7 pump action guns, one locally made double barrel, pistols, 3 dane gun, 2 locally made pistols, 342 rounds of 7.62mm NATO ammo, 321 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 190 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm NATO, 34 rounds of 9mm ammo, 74 live cartridges.
Others are: 166 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, empty shells, 27 magazines, 23 vehicles, 33 motorcycles, 31 mobile phones, 5 boafeng radios, 4 bicycles, cutlasses, axes, digital camera and the sum of N3,278,700.00 amongst other items.
Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 106 dugout pits, 111 boats, 229 storage tanks, 290 cooking ovens, 8 pumping machine, 10 outboard engine, 2 speedboats, one vessel and 96 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 506,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 477,790 litres of illegally refined AGO and 51,000 litres of DPK.
Major General Buba said the military will continue to deny the terrorist, insurgents and violent extremist the ability to achieve their selfish objectives adding “their days are numbered, unless they surrender.”