The Defence Headquarters says that its armed troops have eliminated no less than 500 terrorist commanders across the various theatres of operation in 2024.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj Gen Edward Buba, made this known on Thursday, at a press briefing in which he highlighted troops’ activities from January 2024 to date, said a list of names and faces of terrorists replacing the eliminated commanders would soon be made public.
Buba said that troops’ aggression across the various theatres of operation since the beginning of the year culminated in the elimination of 8,034 terrorists, while 11,623 were arrested and 6,376 hostages were rescued.
Furthermore, troops recovered 8,216 weapons, 211,459 ammunitions and denied the oil theft of an estimated sum over N57bn.
A breakdown of the recoveries was given as follows: 4,053 AK-47 rifles, 1,123 locally fabricated guns, 731 dane guns and 240 pump action guns. Others are; 120,247 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 41,515 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 5,373 cartridges, 1,940 assorted arms and 25,664 assorted ammunition.
Additionally, in 2024, troops recovered 53,101,430 litres of stolen crude oil, 9,179,181 litres of illegally refined AGO diesel) and 90,595 litres of DPK (kerosene) 156,095 litres of PMS (petrol) amongst other items.
“Overall, the military is keeping up the pressure through ongoing operations in the various theatres across the country. The military is, through these operations, increasingly creating conditions in which terrorists can no longer carry out acts of terror or harm citizens.
“On the whole, the armed forces is constantly examining ways to improve the effectiveness of its operations and guarantee the safety of citizens. Relatedly, operations are on an upward trajectory to winning the war”, Buba said.
