During the last two weeks of aggressive military onslaught, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has announced the annihilation of 96 terrorists and arrested 227 others.
The DHQ also announced that its troops Nigeria’s North Central region have arrested a notorious terrorist commander identified as Usman Maisaje. The arrested terrorist commander according to the military, is a close associate of a wanted high profile terrorist leader “known as Kachalla Boka”.
A statement at the weekend by Major General Edward Buba, Director of Defence Media Operations noted that the arrest has “been rewarding in intelligence value as he is cooperating and providing troops with much needed intelligence for further operations”.
The military also annoumced that its troops arrested 45 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 157 kidnapped hostages.
In the South South region, troops “denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Twelve Million Sixty Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Naira (N712,065,450.00) only,” Buba added.
“Troops are actively distruping the operational capabilities of terrorists through ongoing operation across the country. Significantly, troops eliminated five IPOB/ ESN terrorist leaders during the week.
“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 4 dugout pits, 48 boats, 52 drums and 38 storage tanks. Other items recovered include 55 cooking ovens, 2 speedboats, one tricycle, 6 mobile phones, 6 vehicles and 60 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 712,535 litres of stolen crude oil and 76,800 litres of illegally refined AGO.
“The military will not relent on its plan to kill terrorists and destroy the infrastructure that support them. We will increasingly degrade the terrorist military capability and effectiveness through our operations,” the DHQ added.