Troops arrest three Boko Haram commanders, kill 22 others

• Fighter jet bombs terrorists’ logistics site
• ‘We have neutralized insurgents’
•1,275 hostages rescued
It was a show of gallantry when Nigerian troops, in collaboration with their counterparts in the Multi-National Joint Task Force from Cameroon, descended on some hideouts of the Boko Haram insurgents, arresting three of their commanders and killing 22 others.

According to statement issued by the spokesman of the Nigeria Army, Col. Sani Usman yesterday in Abuja, the clearance operation carried out in 10 suspected Boko Haram hideouts in six villages and adjoining settlements along the Nigerian and Cameroonian borderled to the rescue of “1,275 persons held hostage by the terrorists.”

The statement reads in part: “Troops of 152 and 155 Task Force Battalions at Operation Lafiya Dole, in conjunction with troops of Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) from Cameroon, conducted a massive joint clearance operation of suspected Boko Haram terrorist. The unprecedented clearance operation swept through over 10 suspected Boko Haram terrorists hideouts along the border in which they killed 22 terrorists, arrested 3 Ameers (Commanders) and rescued abducted persons.”

The statement gave the names of the captured Commanders and the towns in which they were apprehended as Lawal Abba, who was arrested in Shatte, Mallam Hisna captured in Bulla Jaja and Mallam Gana captured in Bula Burra town.

“During the operation, the troops cleared Nbaga, Bula, Dabube, Ybiri, Greya and Suduwa towns and other adjoining settlements. The towns and settlements were occupied by suspected fleeing Boko Haram terrorists who escaped from villages previously cleared by troops of the Nigerian Army”.

The army statement said the rescued persons “are being administered and screened by 152 Taskforce Battalion pending onward movement to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp. It is gratifying to note that the operation was a huge success as there was no casualty or injury on the troops.”

Meanwhile, against the backdrop of dismantling and degrading of the Boko Haram elements, the army said yesterday that it had neutralised them and they were in disarray.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Yusuf Tukur Buratai, stated this yesterday when he came to the Maxwell Khobe Cantonment of the 3 Armoured Division Jos, where he commissioned 60 renovated blocks

General Buratai said that as far as Boko Haram was concerned, “the Nigerian military had done a lot and is still doing more to totally uproot Boko Haram insurgency from Nigeria. “All right, I want to assure you that things will normalise very soon,” he said.

On the displaced people by the terrorists who are in different rehabilitation camps being handled by the defence headquarters, the COAS said that the military authorities had established the camps, adding that “all those who have surrendered have been cleared to come for de – radicalisation in order to ensure that they become normal people and be useful to the society.”

In a related development, the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) fighter jet on Monday, in continuation of the clearance of the remnants of the insurgents, hit a terrorists’ fuel and logistics dump site in the Northeast, close to Sambisa Forest.

A statement issued by the spokesman of the NAF, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, said the air strike carried out by the NAF F-7 fighter aircraft hit the target at a location called Kangarawa in the Northern part of Borno. “The scale of accompanying inferno and multi-explosions, as can be seen from the footage of the air strike, suggests that the location possibly houses a fuel or ammunition dump.”