The Defence Headquarters has said that the troops’ operations in the last one week have led to the killing of 73 terrorists, with 182 of them arrested.

Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, who disclosed this to newsmen during the bi-weekly briefing on operations in the frontline, said that the troops also arrested 14 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 68 kidnapped hostages.

According to him, one of the top priorities of the armed forces is to secure the country and protect citizens from harm caused by terrorists and extremists across the country.

He said in the South-South, troops denied oil thieves the estimated sum of N1,212,046,140.00.

He said: “Furthermore, troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: one GPMG, three PKT guns, 39 AK-47 rifles, five locally-fabricated rifles, one locally- made double barrel gun, one beretta pistol, four locally-made pistols, five RPG bombs, five pump action guns, one short gun, one hand grenade, two dane guns, one AK-47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special and one locally-made pistol loaded with live cartridges.

“It is worthy of mention that the armed forces are in the lead in the ongoing insurgency and counter-terrorist operations in the country. Significantly, the troops have killed or captured several terrorists, extremist leaders, their facilitators, key associates and numerous of their foot-soldiers.

“Relatedly, the ongoing surgical operations recently embarked upon have thrown these evil elements into a state of complete disarray due to the precision of the operations. The terrorists and extremists alike are now perplexed and suffocated with little or no hiding place. It is now a question of sooner than later, before it would be too late for most of them.

“During the week and in collaboration with our foreign partners, the military conducted a surgical operation targeted at the residence of an ISWAP terrorist commander in Niger State. Several arrests and discoveries were made as a result of the operation. However, being an ongoing operation, not much can be revealed at this stage. Nevertheless, the operation is just one of several others to flush out the terrorists. The message is clear to all. You are either on the side of Nigerians and the armed forces or against us in the fight against terrorists and extremists.”