Five days after two officers and eight soldiers of the Presidential Brigade of Guards were killed by terrorists in Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Defence Headquarters has spoken on it, claiming that its troops have eliminated 30 of the terrorists who organized the ambush and killings.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Bernard Onyeuko, said on Thursday that the clearance operations on the terrorists who organised the killings was conducted by troops of 7 Guards Battalion and 167 Special Force Battalion in conjunction with the Nigerian Air Force component of “Operation Whirl Punch” between Sunday and Tuesday.
He said the troops successfully cleared Kawu and Ido villages neutralising the terrorists and destroyed their enclave and hide out.
According to him, the ground troops also recovered six motorcycles, two AK47 rifles, one fully loaded LMG magazine amongst others during mob up.
“The hierarchy of the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies wishes to re-assured Nigerians of its commitment and pact with all Nigerians. With the recent operations carried out between from July 23, we wish to assure residents of FCT in particular that we are undaunted and unrelenting in our efforts to ensure the safety of lives and properties.
“People should go about their normal business as their safety is guaranteed. The support and cooperation of all Nigerians is hereby solicited as security is everybody’s business. Citizens are encouraged to report any unusual persons in your community to security agencies. If you see something say something,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, details have emerged on how troops were killed while returning from the Nigerian Law School Bwari whose management had placed an Intelligence report of an imminent attack on the school before the security agencies two weeks before the attack.
Quoting sources, Eons Intelligence noted that “following the threat received from the terrorists, the leadership of the Nigerian Law School drew the attention of the military authorities at the 7 Guards Brigade, and other units from 102 Battalion joined them to protect the school.
“The military moved to another location after series of patrols in the general area and also went ahead to provide Security for Veritas University which is about 3.5km to the Law School.
“The late army Captain Samuel Attah and the soldiers were dispatched to the school for preliminary investigation.
“They had a discussion with authorities at the school and agreed on proactive measures to safeguard students, teachers and school facilities.
“A night before the attack, the soldiers observed some strange flashlights being pointed at night around Veritas University and after confirming the flashlight is not from the school security, the soldiers advanced into the bush the next morning to examine what was happening. They called for reinforcement to prepare for clearance operations. They got to a place where there are rocks and water which their APCs, Gun truck and other weapons could not ply through. They had to go on foot to see what was going on.
“The terrorists had sighted them from afar from their Area of Responsibility (AoR) and created an ambush for the troops.
“Sadly on their way back, the terrorists ambushed them with IED, mortar shells and engaged the battalion.
“One captain, one Lieutenant and two soldiers were lost in the attack from the unit of the soldier who gave this exclusive details and 1 soldiers each lost in other units but the soldiers were able to neutralize some number of terrorists dislodging them from their camp.
“Meanwhile,the casualties were recorded because the soldiers could not take their gun trucks, RBG and other weapons as stated earlier, thinking the terrorists would just be a bucket of enemy and went with just their rifles.
“Reinforcement has been working on dislodging them totally and removing them from the area by returning to the area on Monday taking an huge fight to the terrorist camp,dislodging them and went after them to Kaduna State.”