The Nigerian military has appealed to Sokoto residents to return the explosive materials taken from the site of the U.S. Christmas Day airstrike in Jabo community of Sokoto State, citing serious security concerns.

Director of defence media operations, Major General Michael Onoja, who made the appeal while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, said the defence headquarters was alarmed that highly harmful and sensitive explosive materials from the blast scene had been taken by unauthorised individuals.

“We can only appeal to them to return all materials that may prove harmful to them,” Mr Onoja stated. “We do not expect anybody to take away these materials. There are formations within the armed forces whose duty it is to recover and disarm them.”

The appeal came hours after a video of some residents playing with some bomb fragments while mocking the U.S. military as inferior to the Nigerian counterpart went viral online.

Mr Onoja said civilians were oblivious to the techniques involved in handling explosive remnants, stressing that only trained military departments are mandated to recover and safely neutralise such dangerous devices.

While appealing to the media to help spread the message, the senior military officer urged those in possession of such dangerous materials to return them to nearby security locations to prevent loss of lives.

“We want this message disseminated widely so that these materials can be returned and disarmed before they cause greater damage to those who took them and to members of the public,” Mr Onoja added.

The alarm came amid growing security concerns in various parts of the country where terrorists had continued to rely on illegal weapons to kill individuals and destabilise communities.

The U.S. President Donald Trump, December 25, announced on his social media pages that the American military carried out a series of airstrikes against terrorist targets in the North-Western state. The Nigerian ministry of foreign affairs later issued a statement confirming the operation.

While several people hailed the development as timely and necessary, others such as Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and Sheikh Ahmad Gumi said the airstrikes violated Nigeria’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile, both the federal and Sokoto governments confirmed the development, noting no civilian casualties were recorded.