By Soni Daniel

Details of how operatives of the Department of State Services eliminated scores of bandits and militants associated with the Indigenous People of Biafra have now emerged.

A top security source told our correspondent that the militants met their early graves in their attempt to wreak havoc on vulnerable communities in the north-central and southeastern communities.

The competent source revealed that based on intelligence, DSS operatives launched a major offensive on the gun-wielding bandits on motorcycles who were terrorising and looting shops in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.

Scores of the militants were killed in the operation by the DSS, who also seized their cache of weapons and motorcycles.

The DSS confrontation against the militants came barely a week after the operatives neutralized three bandits in Dogon Dawa, Mairiga LGA of the state.

In early December, they had also stormed the Janyau Fulani Area in Gusau, Gusau-Kaura Namoda Road, in Zamfara State and Dalori quarters, Maiduguri, Borno State, and arrested several bandits terrorising parts of the Northeast and Northwest.

A top source said the DSS attack prevented the bandits from holding a vicious meeting in Niger State where they had assembled at a community in Uregi Village in Rafi LGA to plot for a massive onslaught on some communities there.

The security source attributed the improved security witnessed during the just concluded Yuletide to covet operations undertaken by the DSS, especially in the Southeast.

The source lauded the new DSS leadership for the increased synergy between the agency and sister security organisations, which he noted had boosted prompt intelligence sharing with the military and other security agencies and helped to improve the security situation across the country.

The operative said: “It might interest you to note that before Christmas, the DSS identified several IPOB and Eastern Security Network camps in several parts of the southeast states.

“Collaborating with the DSS, we surgically dealt with IPOB and ESN leaders who were terrorising residents of the Southeast. With the DSS, we were able to clear IPOB/ESN strongholds in Orsu, Oru East, Oru West, and Orlu LGA in Imo State, where several AK-47 weapons and IED-making materials and shrines were destroyed.

“In Enugu, the DSS led the operation to clear the Imilike Agu forest in Udenu LGA, where several weapons of different calibres were destroyed and a large number of IPOB/ESN commanders neutralised. Several such operations also took place in Abia, Anambra, and Ebonyi States.

“That was why people in the southeast were, for the first time in several years, able to celebrate Yuletide in peace,” the source said.