Banditry: Troops killed 213 terrorists, arrested 216 others in One Week – DHQ

 

 

…As Northern Governors demand change of tactics in handling insecurity

 

 Chidimma Uchegbu – Abuja

 

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Thursday said that it’s troops deployed in various operation across the country has killed about 213 terrorists and arrested 216 others in one week.

 

Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba made this statement at the biweekly briefing on operational activities of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies across the federation assuring Nigerians that its troops will not rest until the kidnapped hostages are rescued and reunited with their families.

 

Buba said the Nigerian Military regretted that the terrorists are using the abducted school children as body shield against military onslaught.

 

 

He said: “As in every war, there are complexities and ours is no exception. Recently, cases of citizens being abducted in the NE, NW and NC theatres of operations were recorded. These citizens were abducted by a brutal and blood tasty group that should only be addressed as terrorist, and not bandits. I repeat, these are terrorist and not bandits. They are holding these citizens against their will and against all norms of human behaviour, and against the laws of armed conflict and any good measure in the world. No doubt, this is a difficult situation, but not one that is insurmountable.

 

“The hostage situation is an extremely sensitive one which unfortunately is not unprecedented in the history of the ongoing war. These hostages are being held in locations that are difficult to get to, but not out of reached. The situation is however indicative of the desperation of these terrorist to avoid troops onslaught by all means.

 

 

“Recall that in recent times troops have decimated several of the terrorist leaders, commander and foot soldiers and fast closing in one several others. These terrorist have exhibited cowardice by going for such soft targets to impede troops advances. I assure you that we will not rest until they are returned. Several of their leaders and commanders have been killed as a result of troops onslaught. They want to use these hostages as human shield for their survival. Nevertheless, be assured that we will not rest until the hostages are returned”.

 

He also noted that troops, uncovered and destroyed 45 illegal refining sites, in the creeks of Niger Delta region, the Director, revealed that no fewer than 67 perpetrators of oil theft were arrested and 26 kidnapped hostages, rescued within the same period.

 

 

 

Gen. Buba said that troops denied the oil thieves, an estimated sum of One Billion Five Hundred and Fifty Eighty Million, Six Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand, Eighty Naira, only.

 

 

Troops, he added recovered 189 assorted weapons and 4,003 assorted ammunition.

 

 

 

According to him,”Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 150 dugout pits, 30 boats, 73 storage tanks, 209 drums and 15 vehicles. Other items recovered incl 105 cooking ovens, three pumping machines, two outboard engines, one tricycle, four motorcycles and 45 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 1,227,470 litres of stolen crude oil, 313,780 litres of illegally refined AGO and 13,000 litres of PMS”.

 

 

Giving further insights on the situation of kidnapped hostages, Gen. Buba said, the search and rescue effort was grossly affected by the none timely notification of troops of the incident.

 

 

“However, because of the sensitivity of the matter, I can not go into further details as to signs of life, location, and the different options that we have in order to get these hostages back. I can further assure that, getting these hostages back is very clearly on the top of our priorities. It is for this reason we have leveraged on our international partners for support. Accordingly, they are providing the necessary support including intelligence that is giving us the advantage in dealing with the ugly situation,” he said.

 

 

On the propaganda and misinformation by the terrorist groups, the Director said: “Importantly, as it is often said, we are at war and ugly things happen during war. During times of war, it is common place to witness propaganda, deception, misinformation, disinformation and fake news. Our situation is no different. There is therefore the need for citizens to be circumspect when they see post from these terrorist groups and their cohorts, particularly on social media. These groups feed on the attention that they receive in the media to sway the populace. We must be conscious of that and avoid being used directly or indirectly against our national interest. Of recent, these terrorist initiated a post that went viral on the attack of military vehicles. It might interest you to know that, that particular incident was reported when it occurred in Dec 2023. One soldier lost his life as a result of the attack. Afterward, troops conducted synchronised attacks killing the leader of that group and several of his foot soldiers”.

 

 

The post, he said, is clearly an act of desperation by the terrorist to conceal their weakness, stressing that overall, the military is winning the war and making life unbearable for these terrorist.

 

 

Assuring that the military will continue to degrade the terrorists each passing day, Gen Buba noted that the Armed Forces of Nigeria has seriously depleted their ranks to the extent that they are on a desperate recruitment drive, hence some of the witnessed abductions.

 

 

 

“The aim of the military in ongoing counterinsurgency war is the enduring defeat of terrorist groups across the country and the dismantling of their military capabilities, such that they can no longer terrorize or hurt citizens.

 

He concluded by saying that the armed forces remain focused on achieving this aim.

 

…As Northern Governors demand change of tactics in handling insecurity

Meanwhile, The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Inuwa Yahaya, has said governors from the region are concerned over the spate of insecurity in the North.

 

This is as he said the northern governors demanded a change in the approach to tackling insecurity in the region.

 

Yahaya, who is the governor of Gombe State, disclosed this on Thursday after a closed-door meeting with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Service Chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.

 

Governors said to be present at the meeting, including Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Babagana Zulum of Borno, Radda Dikko of Katsina, and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State among others.

 

 

Yahaya noted that the meeting was convened to discuss and review strategies for tackling cases of insecurity in the region.

 

He said, “The essence of the meeting as you can see is between the governors and the service chiefs and the NSA.

 

“So, it relates to security and you know security is very critical, especially that there were the recent issues of kidnapping in the Northwest and we are becoming so concerned that we need to discuss, review, and possibly take alternative options to what we have been doing before so that we can have a better result”.

 

He stressed the need for non-kinetic and kinetic approaches to address the remote causes of insecurity.

 

“In fact, that is the best way to go because the issue is until we join the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches and already the service chiefs and all other security agencies have been doing their best.

 

“So what we need to do is to change the style, especially adding it with the non-kinetic approach, so that at the end of it when we join the two, we’ll have a better security situation in the country,” he said.

 

Some of the recent incidents of insecurity in the Northern parts of the country include the abduction of about 200 women and children who left the Internally Displaced Persons camps in search of firewood in Ngala, Borno state, on March 6.

 

Bandits on March 7, abducted 287 students from the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

 

Also, on Saturday, bandits kidnapped no fewer than 15 Tsangaya students in the Gidan Bakuso area of Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State.