…Apprehends 19 oil thieves, rescues 49 abductees
By Chimezie Godfrey
The Military says its operations are targeted at the safe havens of violent extremist groups that have existed for many years.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed this at a news conference held at the Defence Headquarters on Thursday in Abuja.
Gen. Buba said the armed forces is constantly restrategizing and modifying its operations to overcome the changes in tactics of the extremist operating across the country.
He said the ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations are designed to ensure that uncertainty is replaced with certainty.
“Among the central issues on the ground, in terms of setting security conditions and overcoming instability are the safe havens of some of these violent extremist groups that have existed for many years. These safe havens in effect provided a support base for insurgent activities.
“For instance, these safe havens provide the flow of funding, material, weapons, fighters, command and control that supports terrorism and insurgency confronting us. There are safe havens spread across various theatres ranging from the tumbuns in the NE to other locations such as national parks, game reserves and forests across the country.
“The military has identified several of these safe havens and operations are targeted towards ensuring that they are completely dismantled. Recently, one of the safe havens in Aku Forest in Okigwe LGA of Imo State in the SE was invaded. Troops found unspeakable and unprintable activities going on in the camp. These extremist are cannibals feasting on fellow humans and slaughtering them for other devilish acts.”
He revealed that military operations in the last one week resulted in the killing of several terrorists, rescue of abductees, and arrest of economic saboteurs and other criminal elements across the country.
He said troops recovered large cache of arms and ammunition, while he revealed that oil thieves in the Niger-Delta region were denied crude worth over N968million naira.
“The operations of the last one week, resulted in 50 neutralized terrorists while 114 of them were arrested. Troops also arrested 19 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 49 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Nine Hundred and Sixty Eight Million One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Fifty Naira (N968,160,050.00) only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 65 assorted weapons and 400 assorted ammunition. The breakdown are as follows: 25 AK47 rifles, 4 locally fabricated rifles, 4 pistols, 6 pump action guns, 12 dane guns, 3 AK47 rifles loaded with 50 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo among others.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 54 dugout pits, 66 boats, 138 storage tanks, 253 cooking ovens, 2 pumping machines, 8 speedboat, 17 hoses, 18 drums, 2 cylinders and 53 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 983,350 litres of stolen crude oil, 144,980 litres of illegally refined AGO and 71,650 litres of DPK
“It is clear that some of the the safe havens from which these insurgents and terrorists operate from often extend across the borders with other countries, thereby making it a regional issue. Nevertheless, the objective of ongoing operations is to ensure these safe havens are completely destroyed within the shores of the country,” he said.
Gen. Buba assured that the military would continue to fine tune its operations to ensure maximum protect of citizens and restore security across the country.
“We are getting it right and continue to encourage citizens that know something to say something, so that we can do something about it. Together we win the fight,” he said.
