The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Thursday said troops deployed to different theatres of operations across the country neutralize 73 terrorists and arrested 182.
The military high command also said troops arrested 14 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 68 kidnapped hostages.
Director Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba stated while briefing journalists at the DHQ Abuja.
According to him, in the South South troops denied oil thieves crude of the estimated to be worth One billion ,two Hundred and Twelve Million Forty Six Thousand One Hundred and Forty Naira (N1, 212,046,140.00) only.
He said troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 128 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, 4 outboard engine and 63 illegal refining sites.
“Troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,450 litres of DPK and 45,000 litres of PMS,” he said.
Speaking further, general Buba troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition.
He said the breakdown as follows, ” one GPMG, 3 PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, 5 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one barreta pistols, 4 locally made pistols, 5 RPG bombs, 5 pu,p action gus, one short gun, one hand grenade, 2 dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.
“Others are: 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazine, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radio, one boafeng radio and the sum of N3,308,700.00 amongst other items. “
He said one of the top priorities of the armed forces is to secure the country and protect citizens from harm caused by terrorist and extremist across the country.
” Accordingly, the military is actively working to achieve this mandate. It is worthy of mention that the armed forces is in the lead in the ongoing country insurgency and counter-terrorist operations in the country.
“Significantly, these operations have killed or captured several terrorist, extremist leaders, their facilitators, key associates and numerous of their foot soldiers,” he said.