Troops Arrest 9 Suspected Terrorists, 11 Oil Thieves

The Defence Headquarters has disclosed that troops on internal operations within the week arrested nine suspected terrorist fighters, including a notorious terrorist identified as Abdullahi Ali in the North-East.

Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye who revealed this in a statement on Friday, said the troops also arrested 11 suspected oil thieves and recovered stolen products worth N536,735,709.00 in the Niger Delta region.

Maj.-Gen. Kangye said the troops discovered and destroyed 29 crude oil cooking ovens, 31 dugout pits, 48 boats, 21 storage tanks, 18 drums and 16 illegal refining sites during the period.

He gave a breakdown of recovered products to include 392,174 litres of stolen crude oil, 138,757 litres of illegally refined AGO, 830 litres of PMS and 375 litres of DPK.

Other items recovered include pumping and drilling machines, tricycles, motorcycles, mobile phones and four vehicles, amongst others.

Furthermore, troops within the week recovered AK-47 rifles, locally fabricated guns, dane guns, pump action, locally fabricated pistols and RPG tubes, amongst others.

Kangye added that the troops also recovered various kinds of 7,62mm ammo as well as RPG bombs in the week under review.