The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has announced that the Nigerian troops have apprehended a wanted gunrunner and kidnap kingpin, Buhari Umar who has allegedly being terrorising Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau and Kaduna States.
This was disclosed by the Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye on Thursday in Abuja.
Kangye stated this while briefing journalists on military operations for the month of April.
According to Major General Kangye, the also arrested a 5-man kidnapping syndicate in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
Kangye gave the names of the suspects as Hassan Mohammed, Saleh Sani, Idi Yusuf, Adamu Danmai and Hassan Bello.
He added that Nigerian troops also eliminated scores of outlawed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) terrorists. Notable among those eliminated included one of their leaders identified as Nkwachi Eze popularly known as Onowu. Eze has been on the wanted list of the military.
Kangye pointed out that Eze was responsible for coordinating series of attacks and kidnappings across the Southeast geopolitical zone.
The Director also disclosed that troops rescued 173 kidnapped hostages. While over 204 terrorists and members of their families surrendered.
According to him, troops in the month of April also arrested 430 suspected oil thieves and other criminal elements.
He further added that the troops of Operation DELTA SAFE foiled oil theft worth over N1, 931,297,897.00 in the last one week.
Kangye also gave a breakdown of recovered products as 1,009,733 litres of stolen crude oil. 304,811 litres of illegally refined AGO. And 3,480 litres of DPK, 19,875 litres of PMS and 1,600 litres of engine oil.
Additionally, he said troops discovered and destroyed 351 crude oil cooking ovens, 418 dugout pits, 30 boats, and 9 speedboats. 160 storage tanks, 721 drums and 95 illegal refining sites were destroyed during the period.
The Director gave items recovered to include pumping machines, drilling machines, tricycles, motorcycles, mobile phones and 42 vehicles.
He stated that large quantities of various arms, such as automatic weapons, RPG tubes, machine guns, locally-fabricated guns, and improvised explosive devices were also recovered during the operation.
“Also, some cache of live cartridges and assorted ammunition were recovered in operations,” he said.
source: Leadership news