The Defence Headquarters has said the ongoing operations against insurgency have prevented the terrorists from achieving their set objectives of launching attacks.
This is as the military high command vowed to degrade the ability of terrorists to carry out “small-scale” attacks that could cause panic in the country.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the activities of the military in the past two weeks.
He said, “The ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations have prevented these evil elements from accomplishing their strategic objectives. The military will continue to degrade their ability to carry out small-scale attacks which are intended to create panic in localities.”
He also said the troops, during their operations, killed 73 terrorists, arrested 182, and rescued 68 hostages in one week.
The director said troops identified and destroyed 63 illegal refining sites containing 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 128 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, four outboard engines, and arrested 14 suspected oil thieves.
General Buba added the troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil, 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO, 38,450 litres of DPK, and 45,000 litres of PMS with an estimated value of N1, 212,046,140.00.
The troops also recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunitions in the period under review.
“The breakdown of recovered weapons includes one GPMG, three PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, five locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one Barreta pistol, four locally made pistols, five RPG bombs, five pump action guns, one short gun, one hand grenade, two dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.
“Others are: 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazines, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radio, one radio, and the sum of N3,308,700.00 amongst other items,” he said.
