The Nigerian Armed Forces eliminated 99 terrorists and destroyed a large number of terrorist infrastructure in the last one week in its operations, the military said on Thursday.
Troops also raided some notorious areas in Niger Delta region Delta and destroyed 245 dugout pits, 31 boats, 69 storage tanks, 23 vehicles, 162 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, 3 outboard engine, one tricycle and 50 illegal refining sites.
In the process the troops recovered 578,900 litres of stolen crude oil, 454,330 litres of illegally refined AGO and 10,000 litres of DPK.
The Director of Defence Media Operations,Major General Edward Buba disclosed this in Abuja , maintained that 198 terrorists were arrested during the operations in the week.
“Troops also arrested 49 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 139 kidnapped hostages. In the South South Zone where economic sabotage is rampant, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Eighteen Million Four Hundred and Eighty Three Thousand Nine Hundred Naira (N1,018,483,900.00) only, he said.
Furthermore, troops recovered 141 assorted weapons and 1,463 assorted ammunition. The breakdown are as follows: one GPMG, one GT3 rifle, one assault rifle, 49 AK47 rifles, one josef magnum pump action gun, one double barrel gun, 2 single barrel guns, 9 locally made pistols, 13 dane guns, one hand grenade, 7 locally made rifles, 3 RPG chargers, 2 locally made hand grenades.
Others are: 347 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 966 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 25 rounds of 9mm ammo, 58 live cartridges, 50 rounds of empty cases of 7.62mm special ammo, 30 magazines, 27 vehicles, 47 mobile phones, 34 motorcycles and sum of N717,580.00 amongst other items.
Major General Buba said the military will
continue to degrade terrorists fighting capability. “Our war objective is to destroy these groups, decapitate them, and erode their ability to rage terror attacks against citizens.”
According to him, “troops conducted several operations to curb the violent activities in the North East , North West and North Central zones, as well as against the sundry crimes in the South West zone.
In the South East Zone, troops conducted offensive actions against the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra/Eastern Security Network (IPOB/ESN) as well as other miscreants engaged in diverse violent activities. While in the South South Zone, troops curtailed the sabotage of the nation’s oil infrastructure and theft of crude oil.
He assured that “the war against terrorist, insurgent, violent extremists and others creating insecurity in the country wages on, and the military is progressing towards it goal of total destruction of these elements” adding that “in this war, the military is learning every day how to better deal with the threat posed by these groups.”
“We are maximizing the substantial advantage that we have such as air superiority and aerial cover for the ground forces. The joint operational environment is witnessing communication and coordination of fires between ground and aerial assets to decimate the enemy on the ground, he stressed.
Fielding questions on recent terrorists attacks,the DMO said though the insurgents have been degraded they continue to hit soft targets to attract media attention.
Stating that there are several lines of operation in countering insurgency, Major General Buba noted that combat operations against these insurgents, terrorists and extremists remains one line of action
“It is for this reason that the armed forces is calling on Nigerians for support, particularly in the area of public opinion. We have to show support for our troops to win this war, he added.