Hot SourceThe Defence Headquarters has said that since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, the military working under his renewed strategic direction has achieved significant milestones in degrading terrorist networks, disrupting criminal syndicates, and restoring civil authority across many volatile regions.
Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-General Markus Kangye, who stated this on Friday also revealed that within the period more than 5,000 insurgents and bandits have been neutralized across multiple theatres of operation, including the Northeast, Northwest, and North Central.
The DHQ also denied allegations that 2,630 persons were killed in Plateau State by terrorists/bandits in the last 2 years as well as displacement of 167 communities in Plateau State as concoction of falsehood.
Reacting to Amnesty International’s recent report making these allegations, DHQ dismissed it as ‘A bleak and generalized picture of national insecurity, which largely ignored the asymmetric and evolving nature of modern threats, especially those rooted in decades of socio-political and economic complexities”.
Kangye said the military in collaboration with local intelligence networks, successfully rescued over 1,200 abducted civilians, including women and children, many of whom were kidnapped in mass abduction incidents.
According to him, the deployment of Quick Response Forces, QRFs, Forward Operating Bases, and enhanced coordination with state governments and community leaders have improved civil-military relations with communities.
He stressed that in surveillance and air power enhancement, the NAF has conducted over 500 successful air interdictions, close air support among other operations while significantly degrading the movement and logistics capability of armed groups noting that the use of modern surveillance drones and night operations has improved tactical superiority and minimized civilian casualties.
He disclosed that military engineering corps have secured and rehabilitated key transportation and communication corridors previously vulnerable to attacks resulting in increased joint patrols along porous border regions with Cameroon, Niger, and Chad which has curtailed cross-border infiltration.
“The number of deaths quoted in the report does not reflect the actual situation in Plateau State.
“Following the reorganization of deployments and conduct of broad-spectrum subsidiary operations in Plateau State from July 2023, the State witnessed continuous improvement until the coordinated attacks in some communities in Bokkos and Bassa LGAs of Plateau State on 2 and 14 April 2025.
“The period covered in the press release did not record coordinated attacks on communities except for the Christmas Eve 2023 and the recent security breaches in Bokkos and Bassa LGAs of Plateau State,” he said.
