Troops kill 100 terrorists, lose seven soldiers in Yobe

Troops of the 120 Task Force Battalion in Yobe State yesterday repelled an attack by the Boko Haram sect members, killing over 100 of the fleeing terrorists. Seven soldiers lost their lives in the encounter.

Besides, the military has arrested three alleged financiers and drug peddler for the terrorists in Maiduguri. He was said to have made useful confessions leading to arrest of three other suspected collaborators in Borno State.

The developments came as the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, said the military was re-strategising to stamp out Boko Haram insurgency by December this year in line with the deadline set by President Muhammadu Buhari.

General Olonisakin, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while on a tour to access the military operational facilities and readiness to combat terrorism and insurgency, said: “We are currently working on the December deadline by re-addressing our strategies to ensure that we meet the target.
“The essence of our visit to Port Harcourt is to look at the operational readiness and preparedness of the troops and to see how we can enhance their performances towards combating terrorism and insecurity in the nation.”

A statement by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, yesterday in Abuja confirmed that the insurgents’ attack on the battalion located in Goniri in Yobe State was successfully repelled by the soldiers, killing the entire assailants who participated in the offensive.

He said although seven soldiers paid the supreme price in the encounter, while an officer and eight other soldiers were injured, the troops recovered different weapons and ammunition from the slain terrorists and have consolidated their position. He said the attack was one of the many desperate moves the terrorists would attempt “to create an impression that they remain relevant.”

The statement reads in part: “During the encounter, our gallant troops successfully repelled the attack and inflicted heavy casualty on the invading terrorists as all of them were killed. At the last count, over 100 terrorists’ dead bodies were seen. Unfortunately however, seven of our gallant soldiers paid the supreme price while defending our fatherland, while one officer and eight soldiers were wounded during the action.
“During the encounter, the troops recovered sizeable arms, ammunition and other equipment from the terrorists.”

Meanwhile, the Yobe State Police Commissioner, Mr. Markus Danladi, has said that four suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked the Buhari Housing Estates and a village on the outskirts of Damaturu, killing 18 people and injuring 25 others in the early hours of Wednesday.
The multiple blasts, according to the police chief, were coordinated as the housing estate had a twin blasts at a shop and a vegetable market along Gashua road in Damaturu.

The third bomb blast occurred in one of the Fulani villages, nine kilometres from the state capital, where eight villagers were feared killed. Five people were also injured and brought to the Sani Abacha Specialists Hospital for treatment”, the spokesman of the police command, Toyin Gbadegesin, said in an interview with The
Guardian.

Gbadegesin also disclosed: “The first attack was launched at a Fulani village, before the three other blasts were heard around the Gashua road that killed over a dozen people, including three suspected bombers. The 18 bodies have been evacuated by rescue teams of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Red Cross and the police to an hospital on Gujba road by 9am today (yesterday).”