… Arrest terrorist leader
ACTING Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, has commended troops of 21 Brigade and rugged team of Armed Forces Special Forces (AFSF) on Operation Crackdown inside Sambisa forest for the gallantry displayed while repelling the Boko Haram insurgents which launched their attack on them while on harbour for refitting about 1.45 am on Saturday.
He said the gallant troops successfully repelled the attack and further followed up with mopping up operations of the general area before advancing. Kukasheka further disclosed that two corpses of the attackers and some ammunition, including 2 AK-47 rifles, two Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) bombs, five rifle magazines, mortar bombs and a belt of Machine Gun rounds were recovered from the insurgents. In the ensuing fire power, he said, five soldiers were wounded as a result of mortar fired into the harbour area by the Boko Haram terrorists. According to Col Kukasheka, the wounded soldiers have been evacuated to the rear for treatment. His words: “Despite this incident, the morale of the gallant troops remain very high as they are determined to successfully clear Boko Haram terrorists.”
In a related development, he said the troops had arrested one of the Boko Haram terrorists leaders who had been declared wanted and also conducted patrols and clearance operations within the theatre of operations.
“At about 1.35pm yesterday, troops of 143 Battalion arrested one Sulaiman Umaru, a suspected Boko Haram terrorists group member whose photograph is on the poster containing the photographs of the 100 Boko Haram terrorists declared wanted. He has since been moved to 28 Task Force Brigade Headquarters for further investigation,” he said.
“Similarly, the same unit in conjunction with some elements of 112 Task Force Battalion conducted a fighting patrol along Dikwa-Gulumba Gana road. The team had a fierce fire fight with some Boko Haram terrorists elements in which the troops killed quite a number of the Boko Haram terrorists.
Unfortunately, while on their way back, the team ran into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at Antul, a village south east of Dikwa, in which 7 soldiers and 4 Civilian JTF accompanying them sustained injuries. The injured soldiers and their civilian counterparts have been evacuated to 7 Division Hospital and Medical Services Maiduguri. However, the patrol killed two Boko Haram terrorists and recovered two AK-47 rifles from them,” Kukasheka further disclosed. He explained that the patrol team had earlier intercepted 31 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including women and children coming from Sunabaya, Gumule, Garno and Mane-Gana villages, adding that preliminary investigations along with the vigilantes revealed that one of the rescued IDPs, Abacha Bulama, a native of Mane-Gana village, had the sum of One Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira (N1,900,000.00k) with him and he is now being detained for further investigation. “Although he claimed to be a businessman, his possession of such large amount of money arose suspicion,” he explained.
Other IDPs, he said, had been handed over to Dikwa IDP Camp Manager for screening and further humanitarian assistance.