No fewer than 35 suspected bandits have been killed and 38 others arrested in the on-going anti-cattle rustling and banditry in the Northwest, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) One Mechanized Division of the Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade announced yesterday.
Updating reporters in Kaduna on the offensive code named Operation SHARAN DAJI, the GOC said that 6009 animals had also been recovered in the zone within the last two months.
Also recovered from the bandits, the GOC said, are several AK 47 rifles, dane guns, locally made short-barreled guns, machetes, bows and arrows, G3 rifles, AK 47 Bayonet, 91 rounds of 7.62mm special and 3 cartridges and N45,000.4
Forty-nine camps used as operational bases by the hoodlums in Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger, Kano and Katsina states were destroyed.
He said the suspects had been handed over to the police for investigation and subsequent prosecution while the animals were handed over to the state governments.
Four hundred and sixty-five animals were recovered in Kaduna State, while 16 suspects were arrested and nine others were killed.
He said:”In Zamfara State , 1,443 animals were recovered, 19 bandits arrested, 13 bandits killed, 8 weapons recovered and 20 camps destroyed.
“In Katsina/ Kano State, 4101 animals were recovered, 4 bandits arrested, 13 bandits killed, 21 assorted guns, including 3 AK 47 rifles, bows and arrows with 10 and 11 camps destroyed in Katsina and Kano respectively.”
However,the army lost a sergeant while three soldiers sustained injuries.