Not less than 37 terrorists were neutralized in operations this week by troops of Nigerian Armed Forces who are mounting pressure on terrorists and extremists to surrender .
The Director of Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba said military operations are yielding desired results ranging from denying safe havens to these terrorists and extremist groups, to the destruction of their command and control facilities as well as training facilities adding that 95 of them were arrested.
Troops also arrested 19 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 53 kidnapped hostages. In the South South geo-political zone, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Three Billion Three Hundred and Ninety Nine Million Twenty Nine Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty Naira (N3,399,029,850.00) only.
About 100 assorted weapons and 1,207 assorted ammunition were recovered from terrorists and criminals by the troops . The breakdown are as follows: 45 AK47 rifles, 11 locally fabricated AK47 rifles, 6 pump action guns, 12 dane guns, 2 AK47 rifles loaded with 34 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 2 locally made guns, 2 locally fabricated pistols, 2 locally made revolvers.
Others are; 925 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 28 rounds of 9mm ammo, 157 live cartridges, 23 magazines, 27 vehicles, 25 motorcycles, 38 mobile phones, 2 HH radios, 2 boafeng radios, 4 bicycles and one tricycle amongst others.
Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 42 dugout pits, 82 boats, 143 storage tanks, 234 cooking ovens, 56 illegal refining sites, 61 hoses, 17 drums, one pumping machine, 2 outboard engines and one vessel. Troops recovered 6,009,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 425,715 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,100 litres of DPK and 4,500 litres of PMS.
Major General Buba said the military is in a good fight and is winning in this war. Our operations have killed or captured several terrorist and insurgent leaders as well as their facilitators and key associates.
Accordingly, the insurgents and terrorist are in perpetual mourning as they constantly bury their dead and would continue to do so.
Our communities across the country have risen to the occasion in exposing these elements and it is making a tremendous impact on operations as they no longer have a hiding place.
He urged citizens who know something, to “say something , so we can do something”.