The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Thursday described terrorists and their leaders as “dead men walking”, saying “we will stop at nothing until they are dead or surrender”.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, made the declaration at the regular operational briefing on troops’ exploits across the six geo-political zones of the country.

While assuring of troops’ capacity to sustain “aggressive posturing” across the theatres of operation, the operations’ spokesperson appealed for continuous public support and cooperation, noting that the fight against insecurity had assumed a whole-of-society dimension.

Providing perspectives on ongoing operations, Gen. Buba said: “Our operations clearly indicate that we are hunting the terrorist commanders and their senior leadership. Indeed, from their topmost leadership to the lowest commanders are dead men walking and we will stop at nothing until they are dead or surrender.

“The armed forces have demonstrated commitment by our actions to winning this war. Troops will therefore continue to act with tremendous force to achieve the task ahead.

“The aim of our ongoing operations remains unchanged and clear even in the new year 2024. Our aim is to find and destroy the terrorist wherever they may be hiding in order to ensure their enduring defeat. This would deny the terrorist the ability to terrorize or hurt citizens across the country.

“Pursuant to our goal, troops have in the last one week, focussed on striking the terrorist enclaves from our air attacks. We also exerted significant military power in areas in which the terrorists were hibernating.

“Our operations resulted in 86 neutralized terrorists with 101 of them arrested. Troops also arrested 30 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 21 kidnapped hostages. In the SS, troops denied oil theft of the estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Thirty-Six Million One Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy Naira (N736,115,470.00) only.4.

“Furthermore, troops recovered 111 assorted weapons and 1,124 assorted ammunition. The breakdown is as follows: 65 AK47 rifles, one HK G3 dun, one G3 rifle, 8 locally fabricated guns, 15 Dane guns, 2 fabricated rifles, one locally made pistol, one english pistol, one pump action gun, 2 auto pump action gun, 2 single barrel guns”.

Others are 14 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 993 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 5 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm ammo, 5 rounds of 7.62mm x 39mm, 99 live cartridges, one round of 9mm ammo, one of short gun cartridge, 2 bandoliers, 2 fabricated swords, 13 magazines, 5 vehicles, 29 motorcycles, 6 bicycles, mobile phones and one GTA radio amongst other items.

He added thus: “Troops in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 37 dugout pits, 65 boats, 71 storage tanks, 14 vehicles. Other items recovered include 108 cooking ovens, 4 pump machines, one speedboat and 60 illegal refining sites. Troops recovered 1,013,530 litres of stolen crude oil, 299,169 litres of illegally refined AGO and 3,158 litres of DPK”.