Yesterday, the military averted another suicide attack on Maiduguri when troops intercepted two bombers who attempted to enter the city.
Residents said two suicide bombers made desperate efforts to enter the city through the outskirts but were gunned down in the process.
Regardless, Media Coordinator of Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Mustapha Ankas confirmed that the bombers were intercepted by military troops at Muna Dalti after fruitless attempts to infiltrate the city. “The suicide bombers were halted but refused to stop. In the process, they blew themselves up,” Ankas explained at a media briefing yesterday.
He, however, said there was no casualty other than the two bombers.
Elsewhere, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), said yesterday its Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UAV), destroyed a logistics base used by Boko Haram.
The base, NAF said, is located at Garin Moloma, about one kilometre north of the Sambisa Forest in Borno State. This is just as the military and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources will collaborate in the war against crude oil theft.
A statement by the Director, Information and Public Relations, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, said the UAV was on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission in the area when it detected the gathering of the terrorists.
He said Garin Moloma which had been under surveillance, houses terrorists’ operational vehicles which were destroyed.
The military officer also said the multiple explosions and huge fireball from the location, as recorded from the enclosed video of the UAV strike, “strongly suggests that it may be either an ammunition/fuel storage or weapons/technical workshop.”
According to him, the operation was a major setback for Boko Haram, and a big gain for the military in its fight against insurgency.
Meanwhile, the ministry and the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) are perfecting the synergy between the two organisations towards curbing crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu was at the DHQ where he was briefed by the committee set up to evolve the modality for protection of oil and gas pipelines across the country.
The issue of oil theft and pipeline vandalism was extensively discussed few months ago when Dr Kachikwu, then the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC, visited the DHQ.
The aftermath of that visit was the setting up of the committee to provide guidelines for the protection of oil and gas pipelines by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin.
The committee, which was headed by Rear Admiral Joseph Okojie, was composed of the Military, Police, Civil Defence, Department of State Services, NNPC, EFCC, NPA, Department of Petroleum Resources, NIMASA and other relevant stakeholders.
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