Troops kill two kidnappers, rescue victims in Bauchi

• Army foils suicide bomber’s attack
• Borno frees 249 Boko Haram suspects

Troops of Forward Operations Base and 33 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, on Sunday killed two suspected kidnappers and rescued their victims in Bauchi.Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, disclosed this yesterday, in a statement issued in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.He said the attack took place while the troops were flushing out cattle rustlers from Dutsen Zaki forest in the state.

Usman said, “The soldiers recovered five AK-47 rifles, 23 rounds of 7.62mm ammunitions and four Bajaj brands of motorcycles, as well as food items and clothing.”The recovery was made along the Unguwar Kanawa-Rugar Abdulsalami-Diwa village and Dutsen Zaki area.

The Army spokesman said the troops also yesterday, intercepted a suicide bomber with Improvised Explosive Device (IED), and meant to attack residents of Sabon Gari Jidari.

He gave the name of the suspect as Yusuf Tasiu, who, he said, was arrested after he was dispossessed of the explosives concealed in a blue stabilizer casing.Usman added that experts of the Nigerian Police Explosive Ordinance Device (EOD) had safely detonated it, while the suspect is currently being interrogated.

He reiterated, “The vigilante group at Njidari village, southeast of Damboa conducted clearance operations against suspected Boko Haram terrorists’ hideouts close to Ngwalimeri village, where a locally-made AK-47 was also recovered.

Meanwhile, the army said 249 Boko Haram suspects, absolved of complicity, have been freed and released to the state governor, Kashim Shettima.The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Yusuf Buratai, ordered the release.Usman gave a breakdown of the released persons to include, 169 men, 46 women and 34 children. He said, “203 of them were from 18 local council areas of the state, while 44 were from other states.

The sates are, Adamawa 2, Jigawa 2, Lagos 1, Oyo 1 and Yobe 38. However, two of them were from the Republic of Cameroun,” he said.Acting General Officer Commanding (GOC), Brig-Gen.Victor Ezugwu, performed the handing over at the Maimalari Cantonment.

He said the two Cameroonians involved, would be handed over to the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) for onward
repatriation.

The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Usman Zannah, who represented the governor, advised the released detainees to be law-abiding.

Zannah announced that the government would give out about N.747 million from which, each of the freed victims would get a token of N3, 000.00, to enable them travel back to their places of origin.