Troops of the Nigerian Armed Forces have neutralised no fewer than 37 terrorists and rescued 53 kidnapped hostages in the last one week. The troops also denied oil thieves an estimated sum of over N3 billion, while 95 terrorists and 19 oil thieves were arrested.

Spokesman of Defence Media Operations (DMO), Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, who made the disclosure, noted that the actions and activities of the Armed Forces in the ongoing counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations are integral to the plan of focusing military pressure on the terrorists and extremists to cause them to submission.

Buba said: “The operations are yielding desired results ranging from denying safe havens to these groups, to the destruction of their command and control facilities as well as training facilities.

“The operations of the last one week resulted in 37 neutralised terrorists while 95 of them were arrested.

“Troops also arrested 19 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 53 kidnapped hostages. In the South South geo-political zone, troops denied oil thieves the estimated sum of N3,399,029,850.00 only.”

“Furthermore, troops recovered 100 assorted weapons and 1,207 assorted ammunition.”

The breakdown are as follows: 45 AK47 rifles, 11 locally fabricated AK47 rifles, six pump action guns, 12 dane guns, two AK47 rifles loaded with 34 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, two locally made guns, two locally fabricated pistols, two locally made revolvers.

“Others are 925 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 28 rounds of 9mm ammo, 157 live cartridges, 23 magazines, 27 vehicles, 25 motorcycles, 38 mobile phones, two HH radios, two boafeng radios, four bicycles and one tricycle amongst others.

“Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 42 dugout pits, 82 boats, 143 storage tanks, 234 cooking ovens, 56 illegal refining sites, 61 hoses, 17 drums, one pumping machine, two outboard engines and one vessel. Troops recovered 6,009,500 litres of stolen crude oil; 425,715 litres of illegally refined AGO; 38,100 litres of DPK and 4,500 litres of PMS.”

Buba said, “the military is in a good fight and is winning in this war.” He added: “Our operations have killed or captured several terrorist and insurgent leaders as well as their facilitators and key associates.

“Accordingly, the insurgents and terrorists are in perpetual mourning as they constantly bury their dead and will continue to do so. Our communities across the country have risen to the occasion in exposing these elements and it is making a tremendous impact on operations, as they no longer have a hiding place. Consequently, know something, say something, so we can do something.”