Abubakar Bello, the governor of Niger state, claims that Nigerian Army soldiers had thwarted an insurgent attack on a military base in the state’s Sarkin Pawa region.
His chief press secretary, Mary Noel-Berje, said in a statement that the militants tried to attack the town and the military post on July 18 about 2:23 in the morning. He claimed that within 30 minutes of receiving a distress call, troops came at Sarkin Pawa town and engaged the terrorists in gunfire, killing a large number of them.
”The planned attack would have been devastating if not for swift response by the gallant soldiers at Sarkin-Pawa and the reinforcement team that responded swiftly to distress calls,” he said.
There was no casualty on the side of the military while a number of terrorists were reportedly neutralised while some of them escaped with bullet wounds.
The swift response by the soldiers stationed in Munya and reinforcement team’s response to the distress calls from Minna was commendable.”the statement read
The Governor commended the security operatives for making efforts to tackle the situation despite the “poor nature of the terrain in which they fight the enemies of state”.