The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Thursday, said that the ongoing multi-front military operations against insurgency activities at the various theatres are now being focused on targeting the centre of gravity of terrorist and their Cohorts nationwide.

Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed this at the bi-weekly Media briefing with Defence Correspondents in Abuja.

According to him, “Accordingly, we are finding them, flushing them out and dismantling their military, administrative and logistics capabilities across the various theatres.

“The operations are going in an upward trajectory, even as we prioritised targeting the terrorist leaders, commanders, foot soldiers as well as their collaborators. Many of these categories of terrorists have been eliminated from the battlefield and we are after the others.

“Troops are not resting on their oars, but are persistent in exerting significant military pressure to defeat terrorist and their cohorts in North East, North West and North Central Zones,” he said.

He further stated that “In the South East Zone, troops sustain the momentum against the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their armed Eastern Security Network (ESN) cohorts. While, in the SS Zone troops continue to battled perpetrators of crude oil theft.

According to him, “in battling the perpetrators of crude oil theft, we have established a unified command structure for security operations in the region; additionally, we are examining other areas such as: transparency of IOCs, credible metering of oil wells and the tracking of point of loading to destination of the crude oil.

“We are also galvanising the support of host communities as well as stakeholders in the oil sector. Troops are also reinforcing surveillance efforts on vessels, terminals and oil infrastructures to include jackets, that house well heads.

“Most importantly, troops are monitoring to ensure that culprits are prosecuted by the prosecuting agencies. It is believe that with these measures implemented, there would be a significant boost in crude oil output for the nation,” he added.

He further explained that during the week under review, troops neutralised 106 and arrested 164 persons and arrested 32 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 103 kidnapped hostages.

According to him,” In the South South, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Ninty Three Million Five Hundred and Thirty Six Thousand Naira (N793,536,000.00) only.

He added that furthermore, troops recovered 125 assorted weapons and 1,522 assorted ammunitions.

According to him, “the breakdown are as follows: 41 AK47 rifles, one PKT gun, 24 locally fabricated gun, 28 dane guns, one pump action gun, 755 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 623 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 102 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm, 63 live cartridges, 247 empty case of 7.62mm ammo, 22 AK47 magazines, one baofeng radio, 22 vehicles, 31 motorcycles, 2 bicycles, 10 mobile phones and the sum of N2,956,000.00 only amongst other items.”

General Buba added that the troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 20 dugout pits, 24 boats and 34 storage tanks.

According to him, “other items recovered include 56 cooking ovens, 2 speedboats, 14 pumping machines, 18 drums, 22 vehicles, 4 motorcycles and 36 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 802,200 litres of stolen crude oil, 121,900 litres of illegally refined AGO and 450 litres of DPK.

He said that all the recovered items, arrested suspects, and rescued kidnapped hostages have been handed over to the appropriate authorities further action including prosecution. (Nigerian Tribune)

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