By Muhammed Abubakar, Reporting
TROOPS of the Nigerian Army have killed no fewer than 254 terrorists and arrested 264 others within one week of military operations across the country.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, made the disclosure during a press briefing on Friday.
He said: “During the week under review troops recorded the following: troops neutralised 254 and arrested 264 of them.
“The ongoing counter-terrorism and counter insurgency operations have prevented these evil elements from accomplishing their strategic objectives.”
Buba also reiterated the commitment of the armed forces to degrade terrorists’ “ability to carry out small-scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities across operational theatres in the country.”
The defence spokesman further explained that troops have carried out a war on the nation’s economic saboteurs, stressing that 104 oil thieves have been arrested while 73 kidnap victims have been rescued.
According to Buba, troops denied the oil thieves the estimated sum of N2.6 billion in the South-South geo-political zone.
Recovered from the suspects, according to him, were 378 assorted weapons and 4,705 assorted ammunition.
Giving a breakdown of the weapons, Buba said the items retrieved from the suspects were: 131 AK-47 rifles, two FN rifles, two G3 rifle, three SMGs, 69 locally fabricated guns, 57 pump action guns, seven pistols, 14 locally fabricated pistols, five revolver rifles, four revolver pistols, 45 dane guns, four locally made single barrel, and two hand grenades, seven RPG Launchers, one RPG bomb, one locally made double barrel gun, 17 dane gun double barrel and IEDs.
Others were: 2,444 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,712 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 80 rounds of 9mm ammo, 61 rounds of 5.45 x 39mm ammo, six rounds of 0.44-inch ammo, 415 live cartridges, 10 empty cases of cartridges, 11 magazines, 18 vehicles, 40 motorcycles, 74 mobile phones, 4 baofeng radios and the sum of N748,430 among other items.
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