TheCable

Nigerian troops on Saturday recovered a large cache of arms in Southern Kaduna, Sani Usman, army spokesperson, has said.

The discovery is coming three days after the army launched a special operation, “Harbin Kunama II,” to flush out armed bandits from the area.

‘Harbin Kunama’ was launched in Kaura local government area of the state on April 19.

According to Usman, the arms and ammunition were discovered when troops embarked on cordon and search of Gwaska, Dangoma, Angwan Far and Bakin Kogi general area of southern Kaduna.

73 dane guns, four locally made rifles, one locally made machine gun and one locally made pistol were among the recovered arms.

Others were 260 cartridges, 14 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 63 rounds of 9mm ammunition, one locally made small machine gun magazine and a pair of worn out military boot.

Usman added that some quantities of assorted improvised ammunition and pyrotechnics hidden in dug out pits were also recovered.

“While efforts are ongoing to track down the owners of the arms and ammunition, it is imperative to state that the good people of the area have been very supportive and cooperating with the military which led to these unprecedented findings,” Usman said.

“Similarly, in sector 1 of the operation which covers Kano state, troops in conjunction with other security agencies are carrying out operations in suspected armed bandits camps in Falgore forest.”

The special operation also covers some forests in Bauchi, Kano and Plateau states, NAN reports.

Meanwhile, troops have cleared four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried by suspected terrorists at a crossing point on Banki junction and Pulka road, about six kilometres to Firgi in Borno.

Usman explained that the convoy of Idris Alkali, the army chief of administration and Victor Ezugwu, GOC, 7 Division, came across and cleared the devices during their visit to the troops in the area.

“The Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) team, however, was able to quickly detect the deadly IEDs and safely extracted and detonated them,’’ Usman said.