The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Abuja, says military operations has continued to decimate the fighting force of insurgents, terrorists and extremist groups across the country.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj-Gen Edward Buba who disclosed this on Friday said troops are targeting the leadership of these groups to ensure they pose no further threat to the safety and security of citizens
The ongoing military operations continues to decimated the fighting force of the insurgents, terrorist and violent extremist across the country. Accordingly, their fighting capacity is low and they are on the run.
He said,”Troops are targeting the leadership of these groups to ensure they pose no further threat to the safety and security of citizens. Significantly, on 29 Nov 23, at Tarum Village located on the outside of Bauchi Metropolis in Bauch Stage.
“Troops collaborated with personnel of DSS to conduct a sting operation that culminated in the arrest of the leader of ISWAP terrorist group incharge of North Central and North West Zones. He is in custody. Similarly, air interactions have been conducted on several enclaves of these of these terrorist leaders in the NW and NC zones with much success.
“Sadly in the fight economic saboteurs in the SS, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) MI-35P helicopter crashed at 7.45am in Port Harcourt on 1 December 2023. The incident took place in Port Harcourt shortly after the aircraft took off to embark its operations.
“Gladly, the entire crew of 5 survived the crash with very minor injuries. They are responding to treatment at NAF Medical Centre Port Harcourt. Nevertheless, the incident would be investigated and the outcome communicated.”
Gen Buba revealed that operations during the week resulted in the killing of 52:terrorists and arrest of 204 of them, among other successes recorded.
“The operations of the week in focus, resulted in 52 neutralized terrorists, while 204 of them were arrested. Troops also arrested 58 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 234 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Six Hundred and Sixty Eight Million Seven Hundred Thirty One Thousand Naira (N668,731,000.00) only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 46 assorted weapons and 148 assorted ammunition. The breakdown are as follows: 30 AK47 rifles, 2 josef magnum pump action gun, one double barrel gun, 2 single barrel guns, 12 locally made pistols, 13 dane guns, one hand grenade, 9 locally made rifles, 3 RPG chargers, 2 locally made hand grenades.
“Others are: 120 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 364 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 54 live cartridges, 11 rounds of empty cases of 7.62mm special ammo, 32 magazines, 34 vehicles, 64 mobile phones, 47 motorcycles and sum of N1,582,690.00 amongst other items,” he said.
He added,”Troops in the Niger Delta area destroyed 7 dugout pits, 25 boats, 47 storage tanks, 5 vehicles, 141 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, one outboard engine, one tricycle, one speedboat, one tugboat and 51 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 267,700 litres of stolen crude oil, 567,700 litres of illegally refined AGO and 5,000 litres of DPK.
“The leadership of these groups remain the prime targets of ongoing operations. Accordingly, the armed forces remains determinate to destroy the terrorists, insurgents and violent extremist groups in the country and degrading their military capability.’
