Across Nigeria, no less than 45 individuals were reportedly killed in violent attacks last week, as 13 others were abducted.

The Nigerian Army, according to a Premium Times report, said 39 of those killed were bandits terrorising the country.

This successful campaign against bandits is a departure from the situation the previous week when the military appeared to be at the receiving end as armed persons killed at least 38 soldiers.

Speaking on Thursday (October 10), the report further stated that Olusegun Adeniyi, who is the Theatre Commander of the army’s Operation Lafiya Dole, said Boko Haram had never been a “formidable force” as they are perceived to be.

“The only thing that needs to be given to the army now is Nigeria Army Aviation,” he said. “There is a way you solve a problem that will change the game. The army needs combat helicopters to end the Boko Haram war. If we have it, it will not be deployed like air force assets, air force jets which are for bigger strategic goals,” he said.

Tuesday:

– The Kuje Police Division in FCT confirmed the kidnap of four persons by unknown gunmen at Pegi community in Kuje Area Council.

The Divisional Crime 2-i-c Surveillance, Fidelis Urban, an Inspector of Police, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kuje on Tuesday that an officer with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) was also injured in the incident.

Mr. Urban said the NSCDC officer was critically injured with bullets and machetes cuts.

– The Borno State Government has started a new round of recruitment of local hunters to join the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency that entered its eleventh year in July.

Governor Babagana Zulum said he was seeking alternative approaches to ending the long-running conflict.

Sources in the state government and the Civilian-JTF revealed that the government plans to recruit 10,000 men with voodoo powers and hunting skills for the campaign.

About 2,000 of them have already been enlisted.

Wednesday:

– Suspected kidnappers killed one person and abducted a Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officer, with his two children at Dafara community, in Kuje Area Council, Abuja.

The district head of the community, Makeri Joseph, told reporters in Kuje, on Thursday, that the incident happened Wednesday night. The incident was the second within a week in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Mr. Joseph said the gunmen, who were in army camouflage, came in large numbers and carried sophisticated weapons. He said they killed a community vigilante and whisked away an NSCDC officer with his two children.

Thursday:

The Nigerian Army announced the surrender of five Boko Haram terrorists to troops of 3 Battalion stationed in Gamboru Ngala and Dikwa Local Government Areas of Borno. The spokesperson, Aminu Iliyasu, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, in Abuja.

Mr. Iliyasu, a colonel, said that during preliminary interrogation, the surrendered insurgents revealed that hunger and unending bombardments of their hideouts left them with no choice than to escape from their group.

He added that they also disclosed that they belonged to the Al-Barnawi faction.

– The National Assembly joint committee on the army on Thursday, in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, expressed satisfaction with troops’ ongoing fight against Boko Haram.

– Troops of Operation Thunder Strike rescued six students of Government Day Secondary School Gwagwada in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State abducted on their way to school on Thursday morning.

– Nigerian soldiers on Thursday, in Zamfara, reportedly repelled and killed some armed bandits who invaded a farm belonging to a former state governor, Ahmad Yerima.

Residents said 200 bandits attacked the farm in Bakura Local Government Area killing two gatemen manning the farmhouse. A source said five soldiers died in the attack.

Friday:

Operation Safe Haven, (OPSH), the multi-security task force maintaining peace in Plateau and parts of Bauchi states, claimed it arrested the killers of five soldiers attached to the security outfit.

The commander of OPSH, Austine Agundu, a general, told journalists at the task force’s headquarters in Jos on Thursday that the alleged killers were arrested at Bet, a village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State following a raid of their hideout by soldiers.

Mr. Agundu said the suspects confessed to have taken part in the killing of three soldiers on September 6, 2018, and two soldiers on September 28, this year.

Saturday

The Nigerian Army said soldiers killed at least 39 armed bandits in two different operations in Zamfara last week

Oni Orisan, Operation Hadarin Daji spokesperson, who disclosed this to NAN, on Saturday, said the operations were carried out in Bakura and Anka axis of the state.

According to him, 19 of the bandits were killed in an encounter with the army in the bushes of Anka while the 20 were killed in Bakura.

Mr. Orisan reiterated that the soldiers would not attack any repentant bandit.

He, however, said that those unrepentant ones who carry guns and move around in large numbers would be treated as hostile.

The army also said it captured 10 suspected key Boko Haram members at Bitta in Gwoza LGA of Borno, trying to escape the troops’ sustained onslaught on them.

An army spokesperson, Aminu Iliyasu, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.

He said that a successful sting operation conducted on October 9 by troops of the 26 Task Force Brigade led to the arrest of the suspects.

According to him, many of those arrested have been identified to have operated combat vehicles during the infamous Boko Haram attack on Gwoza in 2014.

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