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Troops killed 128 terrorists, arrested 155 bandits in August – Military

Nigerian Military

Nigerian troops killed no fewer than 128 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists including 15 of their high ranking commanders and arrested a total of 155 bandits in the month of August, the Nigerian military said on Thursday.

The military said 25 bandits were also killed by troops of operation Hadarin Daji in the Northwest region, while several weapons and over 1000 livestock were recovered.

John Enenche, Coordinator, Defence Media Operations (DMO) who said this, while giving update on the activities of the armed forces, said efforts are ongoing to recover more weapons as well as encourage others to surrender and embrace peace.

“Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole conducted several operations recorded attendance successes, whithin the period under review, the Land Component killed 17 members of the BHT/ISWAP elements and several of them escaped with various degrees of gunshot wounds.

“Meanwhile, the comprehensive air strikes executed by the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole on terrorists’ enclaves at various locations, killed no fewer than 111 BHT/ISWAP elements. This is in addition to several others neutralized in the devastating air bombardments directed at structures used by terrorists as hideouts”, he added.

The coordinator further disclosed that preliminary investigation revealed that aside from sabotaging the nation’s economy, banditry is being financed through illegal mining activities.

In the South-south Zone, Enenche informed that the Nigerian Navy Ship Soroh intercepted a speed boat with 13 foreigners made of 7 Russians and 6 Ukrainians alleged to have been kidnapped by pirates in Lome waters.

He said the 13 kidnapped foreigners as well as 4 Nigerians on the speed boat have been handed over to Defence Intelligence Agency on 24 August 2020 for further necessary action.

He further disclosed that the Nigerian Navy Ship Victory patrol team intercepted and arrested 7 men suspected to be smugglers at Agbana-West by the Nigerian-Cameroun maritime border.

“The suspects were arrested with a medium size wooden boat laden with 203 bags of foreign parboiled rice and 62 empty drums suspected to have been used to smuggle Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant products to Cameroun.

“Accordingly, the suspects, bags of smuggled parboiled rice and the medium-sized wooden boat were handed over to Operation Border Drill for further investigation and prosecution in line with extant regulation”, Enenche said.