The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Thursday said troops deployed to different theatres of operations across the country neutralised 286 and arrested 244 others.
The military high command also said its roops also arrested 83 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 122 kidnapped hostages in different theatres of operations.
Director Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja.
According to him, in the South South region, troops denied the oil thieves crude estimated to worth the sum of wo Billion Five Hundred and Sixty Five Million Four Hundred and Seventy Nine Thousand and Seven Hundred and Twenty Naira (N2,565,479,720.00) only.
He said troops in the Niger Delta area discove and destroyed 134 dugout pits, 79 boats and 116 storage tanks.
“Other items recovered include 149 cooking ovens, one speedboat, 11 vehicles, 8 motorcycles and 74 illegal refining sites.
” Troops recovered 2,947,770 litres of stolen crude oil, 251,800 litres of illegally refined AGO, 6,125 litres of DPK and 6,790 litres of PMS.”
Speaking further, he disclosed that troops recovered 587 assorted weapons and 7,943 assorted ammunition.
He said the breakdown as follows: “207 AK47 rifles, 56 locally fabricated guns, 17 pump action guns, 10 locally fabricated pistols, 22 dane guns, one FN rifle, 6 double barrel automatic pump action, 2 double barrel guns, 2 x 36 hand grenades and 10 IEDs.
“Others are 4,088 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 2,529 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 138 rounds of 9mm ammo, 39 rounds of 7.62mm refilled ammo, 331 P445 rounds of 7.62mm special, 180 rounds 5.5mm ammo, 2 PKT link of 7.62mm special, 445 live cartridges, 67 magazines, 6 HH radios,14 vehicles, 32 motorcycles, 34 mobile phones and the sum of N4,876,950.00 amongst other items.”
He the military is wasting no time and sparing any effort to ensure security and safety of citizens across the country.
General Buba however, said the counterinsurgency war cannot be won with lethal weapon alone, calling for a a mixture of kinetic and non-kinetic approach in the fight against insecurity.
“We have eliminated several terrorist, their leaders and commanders.Troops are continually going after the terrorist and dislodging them from their hideouts. In spite of all these, it would appear that there more to be done to win this war outside the use of military pressure.
” Accordingly , we must now win this war by changing the conditions that make the insurgents willing to fight. We must also win the war by increasing support for government at various levels through heart and mind projects indicative of good governance,” he said.
