Death of our Army Chief will Not derail Our Focus- DHQ
By Ewache Ajefu
The Nigerian Military High Command has said that the death of the Chief of of Army Staff, Lt General Taoreed Lagbaja will not derail the focus of ongoing military operations across the country.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba disclosed in his biweekly press briefing with Defence Correspondents in Abuja on the ongoing operations for the month of October and first week of November 2024.
Major General Buba said instead, the demise will spur soldiers in the ongoing operations to finally crush the insurgents and their cohorts and bring them to.their knees.
“On the whole, even as the armed forces mourn the tragic passing away of the COAS, Lt Gen TA Lagbaja. We will not allow his passing to derail our focus to destroy the terrorists. We are rather inspired by his actions on the battlefield as a war commander as well as his strong desire to defeat the terrorist in order to end the war”, he said.
He noted that troops have done a tremendous job of significantly dismantling the terror groups across the country, in various theatres of operations. Our strategy remains to undermine the ability of these terror groups and their cohorts.
“Troops conducted simultaneous strikes on several terrorist enclaves and hideouts across the country. The Airforce carried out bombardments and air interdiction on these terrorist hideouts and enclaves with precision, thereby diminishing the fighting capabilities of these terrorist”, Buba said.
“Truly, the terrorist knows that they cannot match our military strength. The options open to them is to surrender or be killed in the battlefield. Accordingly, some terrorist leaders, commanders and combatants have indicated to surrender. We are opening a surrendering corridor for that purpose”, he said.
It is noteworthy, to state that, in October 2024, troops neutralized 481 terrorists. Other details are that, troops arrested 741 persons including terrorist. Troops also rescued 492 kidnapped hostages.
“Furthermore, troops recovered 480 weapons and 9,026 assorted ammunitions. Whilst they denied the oil theft of an estimated sum of close to N4 billion (N3,896,400.960.00) only”.
“Breakdown for the month of October includes and is not limited to the following: 263 AK47 rifles, 81 locally fabricated guns, 91 dane guns, 76 pump action guns, 5,683 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 1,944 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 642 cartridges, 160 assorted arms and 1,526 assorted ammunitions. Others are 3,226,645 litres of stolen crude oil, 763,860 litres of illegally refined AGO and 12,690 litres of PMS amongst other item”.
“Accordingly, the military will continue work decisively to kill the terrorists, stop the insecurity in the nation and ensure the safety of citizens. The armed forces remains in a good and strong position in this war, and will win this war.”
