Soldiers and policemen have mounted checkpoints around some communities near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
This was apparently to forestall the breakdown of law and order as the protests against the scrapped Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force continues.
Reports reaching TheNewsGuru.com, TNG now has it that soldiers have been deployed to the streets of Abuja to commence the ‘Exercise Crocodile Smile’ as earlier announced by the Nigerian Army.
TNG reports that the Nigerian Army on Saturday announced that ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ will kick off from October 20 to December 31.
Though the Army Spokesperson Col Musa Sagir has said the exercise has no relationship with any lawful protest under any guise whatsoever, many have insinuated it was meant to break the protests.
Recall that the protests in Abuja have in some cases have got out of hand with suspected hoodlums attacking protesters as well as pro-SARS groups.
The situation has often led to clashes that leave several persons injured with vehicles and other property damaged.
TNG reports that a protester, who was stabbed by one of such hoodlums, died in a hospital on Sunday.
Around the popular AYA Roundabout where the protesters had planned to block on Monday, armed soldiers were seen patrolling to ensure flow of traffic.
They mounted barricades as they tried to manage the situation.
More details later…
At least 20 soldiers from the army and a paramilitary force were killed in two separate attacks in Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.
“Six soldiers, including an officer were killed in an attack on a convoy of security forces, in the tribal district of North Waziristan,” the military’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement.
Terrorists used an improvised explosive device to target the convoy, the statement said.
In the second incident, at least 14 soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked security forces in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province, Sajjad Hussain, a police spokesperson in Quetta said.
The incident took place on the Makran Coastal highway in the Gwadar district of the south-western province, when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy belonging to the paramilitary force Frontier Corps.
Hussain said that two of the convoy’s three vehicles were destroyed after being hit by rocket launchers.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most volatile province that borders with both Afghanistan and Iran is being targeted by militants, sectarian groups and sub-nationalist rebels.
Gwadar is a coastal region near the Iranian border where China has built a deep sea port as part of its multi-billion-dollar investment project in Pakistan, which is opposed by Baloch separatists.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.
In 2019, gunmen wearing military uniforms ambushed a bus that was travelling to Gwadar from the provincial capital Quetta, killing 14 passengers, including officials from Pakistan’s navy.
The Nigeria Army has confirmed the killing of Mr Terwase Akwaza, alias “Gana,” the ‘most wanted criminal’ in Benue state.
The Commander, 4 Special Forces Command, Doma, Nasarawa state, Maj. -Gen. Moundhey Ali, told newsmen on Tuesday that Gana was killed at a roadblock mounted by the Army along Gbese-Gboko-Makurdi road following exchange of gunfire.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Benue state government had in 2015 granted amnesty to over 500 persons including Gana, who were terrorising parts of Benue and Taraba states, but most of them relapsed into criminality.
Gana was later in 2017, declared wanted by the Police while the Benue state government placed a N10 million bounty on him.
According to Ali, the army has recorded another breakthrough in their efforts to rid the country of the activities of bandits, terrorists and other criminal elements.
He said: “At about 12:00 hours today (Tuesday), we received strategic information on the movement of the dreaded bandit Terwase Akwaza Agbadu AKA Gana along Gbese-Gboko-Makurdi road.
“Troops of Operation ‘Ayem Akpatuma III’ moved swiftly and mounted snap roadblocks along the routes.
“At about 13:00 hours, there was a meeting engagement with the convoy of Gana, a shoot out ensued and the bandit was killed.”
The Commander also said that 40 armed members of Gana’s gang were captured during the operation.
He said the captured gang members were in Army custody and would be handed over to the appropriate authority for prosecution.
Ali also disclosed that several rifles, pump action guns, ammunition, charms and explosives among other items were recovered from the gang.
He said Gana’s corpse had been deposited in an undisclosed hospital mortuary.
Turkish prosecutors on Saturday ordered the detention of 47 military personnel over their suspected links to a network believed to be behind a coup attempt in 2016.
Police launched simultaneous operations in 40 provinces across the country to catch the suspects upon the order of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the western province of Izmir, the NTV broadcaster reported.
The Police teams have already detained 36 of the suspects, it said.
On Tuesday, a large operation was conducted in 70 provinces to detain 141 military personnel, including soldiers on active duty, over their suspected connections with the network headed by the U.S.-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish government blames Gulen and his network for masterminding the coup bid in July 2016, in which 250 people were killed and has been pushing for his extradition.
Four Malian soldiers were murdered and one seriously injured on Saturday when an explosive device detonated as their vehicle drove by in the centre of the country, a military source told AFP.
The outburst in the Koro region, near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, comes just days after a military putsch against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In another development, West African envoys will meet ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Saturday, a member of the delegation said.
The envoys are due to meet members of the junta at 1600 GMT and will then meet Keita, who was detained by the rebel soldiers in Tuesday’s putsch along with a number of other Malian government and army officials, the source from the West African bloc ECOWAS said on condition of anonymity.
Three soldiers and a vigilante have been killed by gunmen in an attempt to rescue two kidnapped foreign nationals.
According to reports, the foreign nationals were kidnapped in Yakila village in Rafi local government area of Niger state.
It was learnt that the gunmen had kidnapped the foreigners who are road contractors working on the reconstruction of the road from Yakila to Tegina when they attacked the construction site in their numbers on motorcycles.
It was gathered that both the soldiers and vigilante member were at Yakila to rescue the kidnapped victims but were killed in an exchange of gunfire with the bandits.
Attempts to reach the Niger state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Wasiu Abiodun failed as he didn’t respond to his call nor respond to messages sent to him.
However, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abubakar Sani Bello on Security matters, Rt. Colonel Mohammed Maikundi confirmed the incident.
He said security agencies mobilised and restrategized thereafter moved to the area where they also killed some bandits.
The Army has said that suspected soldiers held in connection with a bullion van robbery in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State are not their men.
Col. Aliyu Yusuf, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations in 82 Division, said this in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday in Enugu.
Yusuf said the two men are not serving in any Army unit, command, formation or division.
“The attention of Headquarters 82 Division, Nigerian Army has been drawn to an online publication on the unfortunate bullion van robbery incident at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State on July 29 which led to the arrest of two suspected dismissed soldiers and other gangsters involved in the act.
“It is necessary to inform the public that the so-called soldiers in the report are not personnel of the Nigerian Army since 2015 and 2018 when both Corporal Ayeni Samuel and Corporal Emeka Harrison were dismissed.
Yusuf said Corporal Samuel was dismissed in 2018 for desertion and pipeline vandalism at 174 Battalion, while Corporal Harrison was tried and dismissed from 7 Division Garrison, Maiduguri in 2015.
![[Photo] Soldiers, others arrested for bullion van robbery, death of four policemen](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Suspected-Abakiliki-Bullion-Van-Robbers-750x375-1.jpg)
A crack team of Police detectives have arrested seven armed robbers, including a serving and a dismissed Soldier for alleged involvement in the robbery of a bullion van in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State, PRNigeria is reporting.
The bullion van was moving from Enugu State to Ebonyi State when it was attacked in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, on July 29, 2020.
The robbery incident led to the death of four police officers, with others injured.
According to a situation report of the police, the suspects were arrested by operatives of the inspector-general of police intelligence response team (IRT) of the inspector-general of police (IGP).
“During intensive follow up, six more gang members were arrested by IRT Detectives within 24hrs. They include: Sgt Ayeni Samuel, a Nigerian Soldier serving in Ikeja, Lagos; Cpl Emeka Harrison a dismissed Soldier who had served in Maiduguri Borno State; Emeka Illo, the Sponsor of the operation; and Abuchi Elijah Aka ‘Chime D Mosquito’ an Informant for the robbers and Ibanifiroi Ekiene a native of Tombia Community
“Firearms recovered from the criminals include 12 undetonated improvised explosives, one GPMG, six rifles, 51 AK-47 magazines, 1,620 ammunition, 2 robbed vehicles, breaking implements and charms.
“All suspects, upon interrogation, confessed to the Bullion Van Robbery in Ebonyi State.
“The suspects also confessed that 4 out of the rifles recovered belongs to the Policemen they killed during the robbery.”
PRNigeria gathered that the suspects are assisting police to arrest their remaining gang members.
An ambush by suspected bandits in Katsina State on Saturday left at least 16 soldiers and officers dead and 28 others wounded.
Troops of the Special Army Super Camp 4 were said to be advancing on foot in Shimfida in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State at about 6:13 p.m. Saturday when the armed militants opened fire on them from a hilltop, military sources said.
The officers killed in the attack included a major, a captain and a lieutenant, military sources told newsmen. Two bandits were also injured in the exchanges, officials briefed on the matter said.
When contacted, army spokesperson, Sagir Musa, said he could neither confirm nor comment on the attack as he was hearing it for the first time.
Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari in northwestern Nigeria, has seen a spate of attacks by armed militants.
In Katsina State, over 2,000 people have been killed, 500 communities destroyed and over 33,000 people displaced, a 2020 report by the West Africa Network for Peace building said.
President Buhari, after scores of residents of a Katsina community blocked a highway to protest incessant attacks by armed bandits in May, promised a major military onslaught to rid the state of bandits and kidnappers.
“A major proactive operation by Special Forces, which details are being kept secret, is now in progress to replace the reactive strikes against insurgent camps,” presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said in a statement then.
“To give a full effect to the exercise, a planning team is already in the state selecting targets and making preparations for the execution of the “unprecedented” operation.”