JTF Deploys Fighter Jets As Boko Haram Regroups

L-R: Minister Of State for Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (Ntdc), Sally Mbafeno and a Board Member of Ntdc, Mariam Onuoha, during the visit of officials of the Corporation to the Minister in Abuja, recently.

The military, for the second day in a row, on Saturday engaged the fighter jets of the Nigeria Air Force in its continued battle to dislodge members of the Boko Haram sect.
Sources said that the remnants of the insurgents, flushed out of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, after a failed attempt to free their arrested members from Giwa Barracks, had started regrouping when information reached the Joint Task Force.
It was learnt that they were regrouping around the country’s borders towards Bama in Borno State.
Our source learnt that the air raid was to soften the ground for the ground troops to move in to complete the mop up operation it started after the routing of the Boko Haram sect in the battle in Maiduguri on Friday.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, confirmed the development.
Details of the operation were made available by the Defence Headquarters later on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the military said on Saturday, with photo evidence, that it has captured a massive armoury with arms and ammunition dump at a Boko Haram camp.
A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said the operation, during which money was also recovered, was carried out on Friday night.
Olukolade said: “The large quantities of weapons recovered in the raid are still being evacuated from the scene of the night raid where several terrorists died.”
The Defence Headquarters spokesman said the tentacles of the operation has also been extended to Boko Haram camps located on the outskirts of Duguri, Polkime, Malafatori and other locations around the fringes of Lake Chad in conjunction with the troops of the Multi-National Joint Task Force.
He added: “Substantial money in different currencies and denominations were also recovered from the camps.
“A total of seven terrorists were captured in the operation during which altogether a soldier died while five were wounded.”
Giving an update on the failed attempt by the insurgents to free their colleagues from Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State on Friday, Olukolade said the troops conducting cordon and search for remnants of the daring terrorists had an encounter with some of the surviving terrorists in the general area of Kayamla and Alu Dam on the outskirts of Maiduguri on Saturday morning.
He said during the encounter, more of the terrorists were killed and arrested.
According to him, the encounters are ongoing.
He added: “Those captured in the encounter are providing useful information towards the discovery of other hide outs of the daring terrorists.
“It has been revealed that the terrorists are now desperate to either free or kill the ones being detained, with a view to avenging or preventing further revelations about their operations and hideouts as this has been frustrating their plans lately.
“More bodies of fleeing terrorists have been discovered along the routes of their escape.
“Troops morale and fighting spirit have been further boosted by the outcome of the operations so far.
“Meanwhile, cordon and search as well as patrols and pursuit by air and land is continuing in the entire mission area of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.”