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The military on Thursday has exposed plans by some persons to disguise in military gear to forment havoc and disrupt Saturday’s off-season elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, noting that the Military would deal decisively with some element in the National interest.
Director, Defence Media Operations (DMO), Major-General Edward Buba, revealed while briefing Defence Correspondents on the activities of the Troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) and other security forces in the various theatres of operations across the six geo-political zones of the country.
General Buba said the military message to such a group is that there will be injurious consequences for such an action. The military will not fold its arms and watch its image dragged to the mud.
“There is no doubt that these groups must be defeated and are indeed being defeated,” he declared.
He said: “It is for these reasons we are inflicting severe damage on the terrorist, insurgents and violent extremist through our operations across the country. Accordingly, we are targeting their leadership, infrastructure and foot soldiers.
General Buba also highlighted the importance of the Armed Forces of Nigeria AFN as a discipline and well-trained force that conducts its operation within the ambit of laws governing human rights and that of armed conflict.
"We have rules of engagement that are followed in the course of our actions. Nevertheless, there are standing court martials to put on trial any erring personnel that is found wanting during operations.
“There is therefore the need for us to be circumspect of groups and organisations that embark on misinformation and disinformation to give the military a negative image. They have ulterior motives for their actions.”
He assured that the armed forces would continue to exert military pressure on groups that seek to derail any progress towards peace and security in the country.
Giving update on troops operations of the last one week, General Buba said, it resulted in 113 neutralized terrorists with 300 of them arrested. Troops also arrested 25 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 91 kidnapped hostages. In the South South, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Five Hundred and Seventy One Million Seven Hundred and Ninety Three Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty Naira (N571,793,350.00) only.
Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 76 dugout pits, 35 boats, 95 storage tanks, 10 vehicles, 129 cooking ovens, 5 pumping machine, 13 speedboats, 6 outboard engine, one vessel, 3 motorcycles and 49 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 514,640 litres of stolen crude oil, 339,315 litres of illegally refined AGO and 775 litres of DPK