ABUJA – The Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major General Markus Kangye has disclosed that troops of the armed forces of Nigeria attached to Operation DELTA SAFE have foiled oil theft worth over 7,428,648,246.00 only in the first quarter of 2025.
The Director also said, the first quarter of 2025 witnessed aggressive operational tempo by gallant troops in conjunction with hybrid forces and other security agencies across all theaters.
Speaking at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja during a Media briefing, General Kangye stated that troops demonstrated uncommon bravery, resilience, determination and strong will during various encounters throughout the quarter, including fighting and confidence building patrols, raids, ambushes and clearance as well as search and rescue operations with remarkable outcomes.
According to him, “Air component also conducted reconnaissance, close air support and interdiction missions with high success rates, which seriously degraded the terrorists strength and will to fight.
“During the quarter, many terrorist commanders such as Abba Allai (aka Amirul Khalid of Alafa), Abdullahi (aka Honour), Jagaban and Dan Danger amongst others were neutralized, Abdullahi Ali who was captured alive with severe gun wounds, while this efforts by our gallant troops created gaps in the command and leadership structures of Boko Haram as well as ISWAP/JAS terrorists.”
The Director also noted that there were also “infighting for supremacy within the ranks of the various terrorist factions” which sparked cracks in their leadership hierarchy, hence the observed confusion in their various camps.
General Kangye however revealed that gallant “troops exploited the situation and dealt decisively with them on various fronts, hence their resort to attack on soft targets and the use of IEDs and isolated ambushes.
He noted also that these sustained operations against the terrorists have led to the arrest of scores of terrorists, rescue of kidnapped hostages as many terrorists are said to have surrendered to our troops.
“Some gunrunners and terrorists’ logistics suppliers such as Alhaji Mansur Mohammed, Shehu Babangida, Sagi David, Blessing Paul, Shuaibu Maji were also arrested.
The breakdown indicated that 6,290,437 litres of stolen crude
oil, 1,319,350 litres of illegally refined AGO, 6,130 litres of DPK and 4,545 litres of PMS.
Additionally, troops discovered and destroyed 257 crude oil cooking ovens, 128 dugout pits, 192 boats, 138 storage tanks, 236 drums and 122 illegal refining sites.
Other items recovered include; barge, speedboats, pumping machines, drilling machines, and over 90 vehicles.
Relatedly, troops recovered huge quantities of assorted arms including various kinds of machine guns, RPG tubes, automatic weapons as well as locally fabricated guns and IEDs.
Additionally, huge cache of assorted 7.62mm and 9mm ammunition, as well as live cartridges were also recovered.
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