Facts on how a military operation led by air strikes of the Nigerian Armed Forces eliminated over 200 bandits in Niger State have emerged.
The state’s Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development, Chieftaincy Affairs and Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar, revealed on Wednesday that at least 200 bandits were killed in Niger State in the past three days in security operations.
According to a statement by the Mary Noel-Berje, the media aide to Governor of Niger state, Abubakar Bello said Mr Umar spoke at a press briefing at the Government House, Minna on the directive of the governor.
The statement said, “Many commanders of the terrorist groups were killed in the operations, pointing out that the eliminated terrorists belonged to the camps of Ali Kawajo, Yello Janbros, Kachalla Halilu and Bello Turji.”
According to a report by PR Nigeria, “the aerial operation by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Component of Operation Thunder Strike and Operation Gama Aiki took place on Wednesday between 4.45 pm and 6.34 pm in some bandit camps within Ghana.
“The terrorists had been under surveillance for some time and were observed to be in three different groups of approximately 40 terrorists, with at least 25 motorcycles per group.”
The report noted that “rather than strike individual group separately, the surveillance team waited patiently until the three groups gathered at a crossroad location near Ghana Village. It was at this point that the Air strikes were authorised.”
According to a military source, precision strikes of troops had “100 percent accuracy, going by the intensity and spread of the fireball which entirely engulfed the terrorists.
“At least nothing less than 150 terrorists perished in that strike.”
He added that, “A few of the terrorists who survived the strike were seen crawling or barely limping off from the location, which the ground troops immediately mobbed up.”
