Badaru who disclosed this at a Ministerial Sectoral Briefing to mark the one year anniversary of President Bola Tinubu in office also noted that the troops fighting insecurity in the country, recovered about 4,882 sundry weapons and 83, 900 ammunitions in the period under review.
He attributed the success to the synergy among the security agencies in the war against insurgency and banditry.
He said, “Because of the synergy, we were able to neutralize more than 9,300 bandits and insurgents. About 7,000 were arrested when we rescued 4,641 kidnapped victims in just one year. We also recovered 4,882 assorted weapons and 83,900 ammunitions just in one year. And among those that we neutralized are bandits that command hundreds of foot soldiers.Alika Waji, Damina, Ishiaku Bature and Sani Dangote have all been neutralized. In all, we neutralized over 20 commanders in the last one year.”
Commending the service chiefs for the dedication to duty, Badaru, the immediate past Governor of Jigawa State said, “The Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff are working together day and night as against what used to be in the past which was hampering productivity and efficiency in operation.
“In addition to the military, we have a close collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser, the Police, the Civil Defence and all other paramilitary and security enhancing agencies. This has translated to tremendous progress during this last one year in view.
He also noted that as a result of improved security, oil production in the country has improved compared to the past few years.
He continued, “We were able to arrest 1,437 people, neutralized 363 and we have freed in the Niger Delta 245 that were held hostage.
“We destroyed 3,051 dug pits for illegal crude production. We destroyed 1,276 boats and 3,924 storage facilities. We arrested and destroyed 408 vehicles and 2,716 cooking oils and most of the illegal refineries are down now.
“Additionally, major vessels have been arrested. Vessels like Swift, Harbor spirit, MT Senel, MT Kito and many others and this has helped greatly to improve our crude oil production and this is because of the synergy that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu enjoined us to work with to deliver and end insecurity.”
According to him, the Ministry is working with regional security agencies and other countries of the world to address the security situation in the country.
“As at today, we are conducting Operation Dessert Sani III and Lake Sani II with the Republic of Chad, Cameroon and some representatives from Benin Republic. And this shows how we collaborate with neigbouring states to fight insurgency,” he said, even as he appreciated the President Tinubu-led government for providing incentives to enhance the operational efficiency of the troops.
“The President is supporting the troops to enhance their capacity. You are all aware that the 2023 supplementary budget brought huge allocation to the Ministry of Defence; thanks to Mr President. This has helped us to procure and upgrade a lot of our equipment.
“You are also aware that the president signed the DICON bill that is helping us to produce locally what we need in the fight against insurgency and criminality in this country,” he added.