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Nigerian military announces discovery of N20 million-worth of stored Boko Haram weapons



The Nigeria Army on Sunday disclosed the recovery of large cache of arms buried in the hinterlands of Borno State at a spot made to look like a graveyard.
The Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Leo Irabor, said but for the vigilance of soldiers the grave, which concealed a cache of high calibre ammunition, worth over N20 million, would have remained unnoticed.
Mr. Irabor, a Major General, said the quantum of ammunition recovered is capable of deflating the morale of a full battalion if it remains in the hands of a capable enemy.
Mr. Irabor, who spoke to journalists in Biu, Southern Borno State during an ongoing tour of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, said the discovery was made three days ago when his men received some hint regarding the activities of Boko haram terrorists before they fled from Alagarno.
“We conducted some various scale of operation as well as specific operations that led to the recovery of arms cache in the village called Gursum, around Alagarno general area; and there we had a very sterling discovery of Boko Haram terrorists burying large quantities of ammunition on the ground”, he said.
“This operation was in conjunction with the Civilian JTF because they led us through the routes. We recovered 36 boxes of .50MM which is equivalent to 12.7mm buried concealed as though it was a grave .
“We also got 5/20 lethal brief case as well as a mixture of 7.6 mm NATO and 7.62mm special. These ammunitions were all concealed in plastic containers which we recovered. In addition we got 1/81 NATO tube that was wrapped in cellophane and buried on the ground.
“During the operation, we also discovered one generator, one Hilux vehicle and several motorcycles .”

The Army general also spoke of the death of some fleeing terrorists in a battle.
“Also on the 15th of April troops at Pulka were attacked by fleeing Boko Haram from Sambisa forest. And this was in the early evening of that day. In reaction to it, 7 Boko Haram terrorists were killed, and 4 AK 47 rifles were recovered. And the troops carried out the pursuit of Boko Haram terrorists into the forests. And that took them into the dark hours.
“The following day which was 16th April they went to exploit further in the pursuit and they discovered the following; the first was additional 4 bodies of Boko Haram terrorists, one AK47 rifle, one light medium gun, and one G3 rifle.”

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