- Military to seek external help
The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) have lamented that they are not usually informed in good time whenever terrorists and bandits attack communities or kidnap schoolchildren, women and other Nigerians.
This, the military said, hampers its ability to rescue kidnapped citizens timely.
Director of Defence Military Operations (DMO), Major General Edward Buba, also told journalists on Thursday while reviewing the activities of the AFN in the last one week that 213 terrorists were killed during the period.
General Buba, while explaining how the military is not usually given on-time information on attacks and abductions, said the two recent shocking kidnappings in Borno and Kaduna States were reported hours after the terrorists had left with their victims.
“Given the hostage situation, it can be deduced that the search and rescue effort was grossly affected by the none timely notification of troops of the incident. Nevertheless, I can assure you that we will not rest until these hostages are returned.
“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.
“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 witnness propaganda, deception, misinformation, disinformation and fake news. Our situation is no different”, he said.
General Buba went on to appeal that, “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 therefore is clearly an act of desperation by the terrorist to conceal their weakness. Overall, We are winning the war and making life unbearable for these terrorist. We continue to degrade them each passing day. We have seriously depleted their ranks to the extent that they are on a desperate recruitment drive, hence some of the witnessed abductions.
“Several of their leaders and commanders have been neutralised 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”, the AFN restated.
According to the DMO Director: “Meanwhile,, during the week under review, troops neutralised 213 and arrested 216 of them. Troops also arrested 67 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 26 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Five Hundred and Fifty Eighty Million Six Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand and Eighty Naira (N1,558,665,080.00) only.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 189 assorted weapons and 4,003 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: 111 AK47 rifles, G3 rifle, 31 locally fabricated guns, 5 pump action guns, automatic pump action guns, 26 dane guns, 4 locally made double barrels, 2 fabricated pistols, RPG bomb and IEDs (OGBUNIGWE).
“Others are: 2,766 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 982 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 240 live cartridges, 2 shortgun cartridges, 13 rounds of 9mm ammo, 36 empty cases of 7.62mm ammo, 38 magazines, 3 G3 magazines, 8 vehicles, 44 motorcycles, 19 mobile phones, 4 bicycles, rifle butt, rifle stock and the sum of N628,000.00 amongst other items.
“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, 3 pumping machines, 2 outboard engines, one tricycle, 4 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.
