Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Defence Headquarters said on Thursday that troops operating in the south south region denied oil thieves access to crude oil estimated at the sum of over #57 bn (N57,052,218,551.00) only this year.
The Director of Defence Media Operations Major General Edward Buba disclosed this in Abuja while briefing journalists on the activities of military against insurgents and economic saboteurs in the country this year.
Troops from the beginning of the year in January were confronted by different threats in five active theatres of operations across the country, namely; North East, North West, North Central ,South South and South East Zones of the country
He said that troops recovered: a total of 53,101,430 litres of stolen crude oil, 9,179,181 litres of illegally refined Automated Gas Oil, AGO , 90,595 litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene , DPK, and 156,095 litres of Premium motor spirit, PMS, amongst other items.
According to him,troops aggression across the various theatres of operations since the beginning of the year culminated in 8,034 neutralized terrorists, 11,623 arrests, and 6,376 rescued hostages. Furthermore, troops recovered 8,216 weapons, 211,459 ammunitions.
The breakdown of the recoveries is as follows: 4,053 AK47 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 ammunitions.
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 terrorist can not carry out acts of terror or harm citizens.
On the whole, the armed forces are 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.
According to the Director, troops have adopted a high level of alert and an increased state of readiness to protect the country from further terrorist aggression and insecurity, essentially this festive period.
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