By Sadiq Umar – The Nigerian military Tuesday carried out land operations against militants at their hideouts and camps, in its quest to rid off pipeline vandals in Arepo community, Ogun State suburb and its environs.
This is coming after days of Arial bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force in the Arepo axis of the Ogun-Lagos high sea.
Authoritative sources confirmed that the soldiers raided the villages and hamlets around the area in search of the militants.
“They made some arrest, there were a lot of apprehensions here.,” a source told News Investigators.
The Defence Headquarters said the latest operation (air strike) which is in continuation of Thursday, July 28 action, was aimed at providing air support for the Joint Task Force, recently set-up by the Defence Headquarters and codenamed “OPERATION AWATSE” “to dislodge pipeline vandals in the South West region of the country.
It stated that there were strong indications based on analysis of the enclosed footage on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), as well as Strike and, Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) missions undertaken by NAF aircraft that the vandals have been “sufficiently displaced from their current locations at Arepo” and their activities disrupted.
The Military said its men were still trailing the suspected criminals who might have relocated deep inside the Mangrove Forest.
NAF is at present operating in 4 zones across the country to tackle various forms of internal security challenges. They include insurgency in the North East; cattle rustling, kidnapping and armed robbery in the North West; militancy in the South-South; and pipeline vandalism in the South West.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed report says the remnants of the vandals have now moved to the Arogbo area of the neighbouring Ondo State where they are now taking refuge.
The sudden attack by the Defence was said to have been a pre-emptive move against the planned declaration of Niger Delta Republic on August 1 by the Niger Delta militants.
