The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has attributed the delay in the rescue of abducted school children in Kaduna and Sokoto states to a late report of the incident to the response team in the affected communities.
The director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, stated this yesterday when he briefed journalists on troops’ operations in the last one week.
He said troops during the period neutralised 213 terrorists, arrested 216 others and rescued 26 kidnapped persons
Buba said the troops also arrested 67 suspected oil thieves and recovered 1,227,470 litres of stolen crude oil, 313,780 litres of illegally refined AGO and 13,000 litres of PMS worth N1,558,665,080.00.
He said troops recovered 189 assorted weapons and 4,003 assorted ammunition within the week.
On the abduction of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Gamboru Ngala local government area of Borno State, he said troops on March 3, 2024, received information from the coordinator of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) about suspected abduction of unknown number of IDPs by suspected terrorists.
He said preliminary investigation revealed later that the IDPs left the camp to an undisclosed location to fetch firewood beyond the “permissible distance”.
Buba said, “They reportedly did not notify the camp authorities of their movement. It was later at about 2030hrs at night when the IDPs did not return to the camp that the alarm was raised as to their possible abduction by terrorists.
“It was at that stage that the troops were notified of the incident. The standard practice is for troops to be notified prior to any movement of IDPs beyond the permissible distance of 5-7 kms from their camp.
“The IDPs reportedly went beyond the permissible distance to get firewood as a result of deforestation around their camp. The terrorist abducted 112 IDPs in the process. Nevertheless, effort is ongoing to get back the hostages” he said
He said the military had eliminated key terrorist leaders and would stop at nothing to end the menace of terrorism across the country.
The director said the terrorists were using the abducted children as human shields for their survival following troops’ onslaught.
“The hostage situation is an extremely sensitive one which unfortunately is not unprecedented in the history of the ongoing war. These hostages are being held in locations that are difficult to get to, but not out of reach. The situation is however indicative of the desperation of these terrorists to avoid troops’ onslaught by all means.
“Overall, we are winning the war and making life unbearable for these terrorists. We continue to degrade them each passing day. We have seriously depleted their ranks to the extent that they are on a desperate recruitment drive, hence some of the witnessed abductions”.
He continued, “Given the hostage situation, it can be deduced that the search and rescue effort was grossly affected by the non-timely notification of troops of the incident. Nevertheless, I can assure you that we will not rest until these hostages are returned.
“However, because of the sensitivity of the matter, I cannot go into further details as to signs of life, location, and the different options that we have in order to get these hostages back.
“I can further assure that getting these hostages back is very clearly on the top of our priorities. It is for this reason we have leveraged on our international partners for support. Accordingly, they are providing the necessary support including intelligence that is giving us the advantage in dealing with the ugly situation.”
He noted that Nigeria was at war and ugly things happen during war. “During times of war, it is commonplace to witness propaganda, deception, misinformation, disinformation and fake news. Our situation is no different,” he said.
According to him, citizens need be circumspect when they see posts from terrorist groups and their cohorts, particularly on social media, because they feed on the attention that they receive in the media to sway the populace.
We must be conscious of that and avoid being used directly or indirectly against our national interest,” he said.
In a breakdown of troops achievements, he said the troops recovered 111 AK47 rifles, G3 rifle, 31 locally fabricated guns, five pump action guns, automatic pump action guns, 26 dane guns, four locally made double barrels, two fabricated pistols, RPG bomb and IEDs.
Others recovered include 2,766 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 982 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 240 live cartridges, two shotgun cartridges, 13 rounds of 9mm ammo, 36 empty cases of 7.62mm ammo, 38 magazines, three G3 magazines, eight vehicles, 44 motorcycles, 19 mobile phones, four bicycles, rifle butt, rifle stock and the sum of N628,000.00 amongst other items.
Meanwhile, in the Niger Delta area, he said troops discovered and destroyed 45 illegal refining sites, 150 dugout pits, 30 boats, 73 storage tanks, 209 drums and 15 vehicles. Other items recovered incl 105 cooking ovens, three pumping machines, two outboard engines, one tricycle and four motorcycles.
