Citizen's Conciousness Must Be Alert As First Line of Intelligence - DHQ

The Defence Headquarters in Nigeria has called on citizen's consciousness to be alert to the responsibility of being the first line of intelligence in honour of the nation.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba made the call  during briefing on ongoing military operations in military formations accross the country in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

While referencing the incident that occurred in Delta State where 17 Personnel of the military were killed, he stressed that Nigerians must never allow such to ever happen again to those defending her territorial integrity. 

 

The Defence Headquarters has therefore vowed not to relent until those behind the killings at Okuama in Delta State are arrested and brought to justice.

The Defence Headquarters has recently put out a banner of eight persons involved in the killing comprising of 7 males and a female to the public for relevant information that would support the military authorities. 

General Buba called on the the elders and community leaders in Delta State to expose the named wanted persons.

He restated that the Armed Force is bent on sustaining the winning ways of their operational engagements as demonstrated by the recent rescue of 16 and 137  hostages in Sokoto and Kaduna States respectively.

“The rescue of these hostages is indicative of a better understanding of the dynamics of what we are dealing with and to address the issue in a much safer manner”, he said.

According to him, the rescue operations were based on collaboration between the military working with local authorities and government agencies across the country, in a coordinated search.

He said the successes of the rescue operations demonstrates the unwavering commitment of the Armed Forces to secure and protect the citizens against harm and acts of terror. 

"The pressure of military operations created a significant level of distress both for the terrorist and the children, given the situation, the troops’ line of interest was the children, the level of distress created by the children was sufficient enough for troops to exploit in their rescue"

Additionally, cursory operations in the general areas by troops culminated in the neutralization of several terrorist leaders and commanders in OPERATION HADARIN DAJI’s theatre of operation.

 

Review

The week under review has seen the troops neutralized 212 and arrested 252 persons. The troops also arrested 29 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 244 kidnapped hostages.

According to the brief by Major General Edward Buba, in South-South region of the country, troops denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of One Billion Fifty Million Seven and Fifteen Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Naira (N1,050,715,260.00) only.

Furthermore, troops recovered 223 assorted weapons and 2,756 assorted ammunition. The breakdown is as follows: 3 M56 rifles, 115 AK47 rifles, 3 PKT guns, 24 locally fabricated guns, 36 Dane guns, 7 locally fabricated pistols, one fabricated revolver pistol, 3 locally made single barrel guns, 2 hand grenades and one locally made explosive.

Others are 1,716 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 494 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 60 rounds of 7.62 x 25mm ammo, 290 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm ammo, 81 rounds of 9mm ammo, 2 live cartridges, 16 magazines, 3 M56 rifles magazines, one HH radio, 5 vehicles, 14 motorcycles, 15 mobile phones and the sum of N857,960.00 amongst other items.

Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 102 dugout pits, 41 boats, 36 storage tanks and 8 vehicles. Other items recovered included 39 cooking ovens, 6 pumping machines and 61 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 944,700 litres of stolen crude oil, 171,060 litres of illegally refined AGO and 1,500 litres of DPK.

The foregoing according to the military indicates that troops are weathering the storm through offensive posture and an improved understanding of the modus operandi of the adversary. And they are also doing their best to rescue other hostages in terrorist captivity without relenting.

As a mark of honour and respect for departed colleagues, a minute of silence was observed for officers and others who lost their lives in defending their fatherland during the briefing .