Nigeria’s military claims troops killed 42 suspected bandits, others in troubled North

The Defence Headquarters claimed on Thursday that troops from various theatre commands had killed 42 suspected bandits, terrorists and criminals in the Northern part of the country in the last two weeks.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, who disclosed this at the bi-weekly news conference on the operations of the armed forces in Abuja, said the troops arrested 13 suspected bandits in the Irekpeni community along Lokoja-Kabba-Okene Road in Kogi State.

He added that the troops recovered a mobile phone containing the numbers of four suspected Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists on the watchlist of security agencies.

The spokesman also revealed that seven suspected kidnappers informants and collaborators were arrested by the troops following a tip-off in Nasarawa Eggon local government area of Nasarawa State.

According to him, troops equally arrested 86 suspected criminals and rescued nine kidnapped persons across the North-Central and North-West within the period.

READ ALSO: Troops arrest suspected arms supplier to bandits in Kaduna

Danmadami said: “In North-West, the troops of Operations Hadarin Daji and other operations eliminated 38 bandits, apprehended 10 and rescued 24 kidnapped civilians.

“They also recovered 20 AK47 rifles, 92 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 894 rounds of 7.62mm special, 2 PKT guns, 28 AK47 magazines, eight rounds of 9mm ammunition, 83 rounds of 7.62 x 54mm special, five Dane guns, and three IEDs.

“Other items include 19 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, three boafeng radios and 34 cattle.

“Equally, the air component between June 2 and June 6, conducted an air interdiction operation at a terrorist leader’s enclave in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

“Accordingly, the target was attacked with rockets neutralising several terrorists.”

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