Nigerian military authorities on Wednesday announced that another set of 50 insurgents have been arrested by troops of the Special Forces as they intensify effort to completely dislodge the Islamist sect, Boko Haram from the three states where emergency rule is in place.
Brig Gen Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information however, attributed the success to the efforts of the trained military police dogs that are now part of the search team. President Goodluck Jonathan recently declared state of emergency in three north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
He said the sect members were arrested while trying to infiltrate Maiduguri, adding that vehicles, motorcycles and ammunitions have been recovered as troops continued to comb the forests.
“Trained Military Police dogs are participating in the cordon and search phase of Special Operations against terrorism in the country. Various attempts being made by the insurgents to escape to enter towns and cities in the North East as troops dislodge them from their forest bases; have been foiled by the dogs.
“The efforts of the specially trained dogs have so far led to the arrest of over 50 terrorists who were trying to infiltrate Maiduguri. More than 15 of them were arrested with arms concealed in their body or properties.
“Meanwhile, cordon and search have been intensified as the forests in the North East are being combed for terrorists. At Deseri forest, 3 Hilux vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft were destroyed; one Voxwagen Golf car and 4 motorcycles were also recovered,” Olukolade said.
Also, four foreign nationals have been arrested by the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano. The JTF discovered a large cache of arms and ammunition at a warehouse located in the Bompai area of Kano and subsequently arrested the owner of the building, a Lebanese.
It was gathered that various deadly items including 40 air-to-surface missiles, 50 cluster bombs, 200 rockets-propel launchers, eight AK-47 rifles, 200 military hand grenades and some military hardware capable of destroying Armoured Personnel Carriers were recovered.
