Troops Kill 96 Terrorists, Arrest Kingpin Maisaje, 226 Others

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said troops arrested a notorious terrorist leader Usman Maisaje, alongside 226 suspected terrorists have been apprehended while 96 others have been killed by the Nigerian troops in the last one week.

The Defence Headquarters disclosed this in a statement on Friday by the Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, revealing that the arrested terrorist commander is a close associate of a wanted high-profile terrorist leader known as Kachalla Boka.

“The arrest has been rewarding in intelligence value as he is cooperating and providing troops with much needed intelligence for further operations,” Buba said.

On the war against oil theft, the Director Defence Media Operations said troops arrested 45 suspected oil thieves, destroyed 60 illegal refining sites and recovered 712,535 litres of stolen crude oil and 76,800 litres of illegally refined AGO worth N712,065,450.00

Maj.-Gen. Buba added that troops also rescued 157 kidnap hostages, recovered 71 assorted weapons and 1,463 assorted ammunitions during the period in review.

He gave a breakdown of recovered weapons to include 50 AK47 rifles, 16 fabricated rifles, five dane guns, five pump action guns, five locally made pistols, one revolver pistol and 16 AK47 magazines.

Others are 784 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 403 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 164 rounds 7.62 x 39mm ammo, 53 rounds of 9mm ammo, 67 live cartridges, one baofeng radio, 19 vehicles, 23 motorcycles, 35 mobile phones and the sum of N4,087,630.00 and 46,000 CFA only amongst other items.

Meanwhile in the Niger Delta, troops discovered and destroyed 60 illegal refining sites, four dugout pits, 48 boats, 52 drums and 38 storage tanks.

Troops also recovered 55 cooking ovens, two speedboats, one tricycle, six mobile phones and six vehicles within the period.