By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Thursday, took a swipe at a pro- Arewa organization, operating under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Group, saying that their allegations against the Armed Force of Nigeria, on the Kaduna bombing is reckless, insensitive, inciting and unpatriotic.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, who was responding to a question bothering on an allegations by a northern group that the bombing incident in Kaduna was aimed at reducing the political advantage that population conferred on northern Nigeria, said that the armed forces of Nigeria is a professional force.
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This is even as he disclosed that the Nigerian military arrested two Cameroonian separatist ambazonian
fighters, following a raid of suspected criminal hideout in Boki LGA of Cross River State.
He noted that the Kaduna incident is being investigated and the outcome of the investigation would go a long way in identifying areas of improvement to forestall future occurrences.
The operations of the military and other security agencies, in the week in focus, he said, resulted in killing of 80 terrorists, and arrest of 304.
He added that the troops, also, arrested no fewer than 152 oil thieves and and rescued 44 kidnapped hostages in South South region.
Gen. Buba said, troops, equally denied the oil theft of the estimated sum of three hundred and forty six million, one hundred and seventy-five thousand five hundred naira.
The Coordinator said, troops in the Niger Delta area, destroyed 20 illegal refining sites, eight dugout pits, 11 boats, 46 storage tanks, 7 vehicles, 84 cooking ovens, 356 drums, one outboard engine, and one pumping machine.
Gen. Buba, revealed that the military equally recovered 81,000 litres of stolen crude oil, 239,500 litres of illegally refined AGO, 5,000 litres of DPK and 10,500 litres of PMS.
The armed forces, he said is very concerned about the issues of civilian casualties in operations, stressing that the military views it as tragic and unwanted.
He said that the military is determined to deal with the situation properly and make improvement from our experiences.
Nothing that the Armed Forces of Nigeria will continue to take great measures to prevent civilian casualties, Gen. Buba asserted that protecting civilians remains a vital part of military operations in order to promote greater security for all Nigerians.
Responding to question on the allegations by the Northern group, the Coordinator said: “Here is what I can say, the armed forces of Nigeria is a professional force and within our ranks and files, we have members every tribe in this country. So, whatever group is coming up with whatever insinuations that they had imagined in their minds. I can tell you that such insinuations is faulty, erroneous and unpatriotic. At this time when we are at war, it is not just the military that is at war. The entire country is at war and that is why, I have severally said on this platform that there are more people that know something than those that see. Therefore, when you know something say it so that the military can do something about it. On what we are doing to prevent future occurrences, I can assure you that we will get more training, understanding of the processes and protocol involved to make sure that when something is seen, before the order is given, we would be 100 percent sure that the location is supposed to be bombed”.
On the actual casualty figure for the Kaduna bombing, he said: “On the casualties, we heard from the leader of the community that the number of death is close to 80, and the doctors treating the injured put the figure of the hospitalized to 71, after which one died bringing the number of death to 81. So we can say 81 deaths and 70 injured”.
