Again, Troops Neutralise 169 Terrorist Arrest 641, while 181 kidnapped hostages were Rescue

From Aviashima Toom, Abuja 

The Armed Forces of Nigeria AFN, says it's air component of Operation HADIN KAI, conducted targeted air strikes on terrorists located resulting in the neutralisation of over 70 extremist members at KWALLARAM, with several more killed at ARAINNA CIKI island in Borno State 

In a statement signed on Saturday by the Director Defence Media Operations DMO, Maj-Gen Edward Buba in Abuja also said that during the week under review, troops neutralized 169 and arrested 641 persons. 

He said Troops also arrested 40 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 181 kidnapped hostages. In the South South, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of  One Billion Four Hundred and Two Million Nine Hundred and One Thousand Nine Hundred Naira (N1,402,001,900.00) only.

He revealed that troops recovered 192 assorted weapons and 2,970 assorted ammunition. The breakdown as follows: 106 AK47 rifles, 38 fabricated rifles, 26 dane guns, one FN rifle, 3 fabricated revolver pistol, 11 locally made pistols, 5 pump action guns, ome dummy AK47 rifle, one unexploded RPG bomb, 2 

Others are: 1,410 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,074 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 67 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 130 rounds of 108mm, 101 rounds of 9mm ammo, 146 live cartridges,  2 baofeng radios, 7 vehicles, 29 motorcycles, 40 mobile phones and the sum of N729,000.00 only amongst other items.

According to him Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 20 crude oil cooking ovens, 2 dugout pits, 42 boats, 7 reservoirs, 5 drums, 50 storage tanks and 83 illegal refining sites.

Other items recovered include 3 pumping machines, 3 outboard engines, one generator set, one speedboat, 8 motorcycles, 3 mobile phones and 3 vehicles among others. Troops recovered 914,445 litres of stolen crude oil, 537,325 litres of illegally refined AGO and 1,285 litres of PMS.

He maintained that while troops operations has severely depleted the ranks and files, he explained that the terrorist are forced into a desperate recruitment drive on social media, particularly the ISWAP terrorist group. Insisting that Troops will sustain the offensives to eliminate all threats.