By Uche Onyeali
Troops neutralised no fewer than 13,543 terrorists within the last two years, according to the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru.
Badaru, who made the disclosure Wednesday during a ministerial press briefing hosted by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the feat stemmed from the avowed commitment of the federal government to rid the country of terrorism and banditry.
Reeling out the achievements of the armed forces, the minister said between May 2023 and May 2025, a total of 17,469 suspects were also arrested.
He added that while 9,821 hostages were rescued, 124,408 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists surrendered.
Badaru announced the recovery of 11,118 weapons and 252,596 assorted ammunition.
He said the armed forces had recorded tremendous success, including liberating several areas hitherto under the control of terrorists, as well as restoring sanity on several highways.
Disputing claims that terrorists had more sophisticated arms than the military, the minister said “it is not true; we have much more sophisticated weapons.
“The issue is this war is not a conventional war; it is like a guerilla war; they watch us, they have informants around us, around the people that we try to protect and they give them information, and they jump to us when we don’t expect, and when they know that our surveillance mechanism is watching some direction, because we cannot cover all the areas.
“That is it, but they don’t have more equipment than us, we have much more, we have more sophisticated equipment and that is why we have recorded the successes that I have just mentioned.”
