Nasarawa Airstrike: How ‘Surveillance Operation’ Identified Victims as Terrorists – NAF

Nasarawa Airstrike: How ‘Surveillance Operation’ Identified Victims as Terrorists – NAF

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), on Thursday, insisted that the persons killed in an airstrike conducted by one of its fighter jets at Kwatiri, a village in Nasarawa State in January 2023 were terrorists.

This is contrary to the report by the Human Right Watch, demanding compensation for the victims, and the earlier claim by Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) that the persons were its members, on a mission to recover some cattle impounded by the Benue livestock guards.

Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, the spokesperson of NAF, made this known, while responding to a question on the incident at a defence media briefing at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.

He asserted that their NAF airstrike was carried out with precision, and in accordance with intelligence reports, indicating the presence of terrorists in the area.

Famuyiwa insisted that the airstrike was targeted at terrorists not civilians.

According to the NAF spokesperson, their operation was meticulously planned and executed, adhering to the strictest rules of engagement and focusing solely on eliminating identified threats to national security.

“Thorough surveillance and intelligence-gathering efforts were employed to minimize the risk to civilians,” he noted.

According to Commodore Famuyiwa, the media only leveraged the report from the Human Right Watch, without balancing it from the side of their Nigerian Air Force.

He noted that on the 21st of January 2023, “We received reports from a reliable source on the activities of terrorists in that area. We all are aware of their criminal activities and our ongoing intelligence operations of Operation Whirl Stroke.

“The head of the operations had an information of planned attack of terrorists in that area and there was a Secondary School close to the area that will likely be attacked.

“The airforce carried out surveillance, which confirmed that they were terrorists. We have our surveillance mounted throughout the day watching their movement. Later in the evening, there was a truck moving in that direction and stopped at the scene.

“The truck brought ammunition for them. That was the reason an approval was given by the appropriate authority that the truck should be taken out.

“If anyone claiming that innocent citizens were killed, the press should have investigated that. They could not provide photography of the truck that brought the cattle they are talking about? Where is the image of the citizens that were allegedly killed from the scene and the images of the cattle that were struck?”

The NAF spokesperson further added that, “We have not seen any information of the images of innocent citizens that were killed, even from the media.

“The position of the NAF is that the attack was well-planned and the bombardment struck the terrorists. If there were contrary to this, let them provide the evidence.

“The military has information which cannot be declassified now in the scene.

“I will enjoin the press to investigate this to ascertain the veracity of the claims that the bombardment struck innocent citizens.

“If you can observe carefully, after that bombardment, there were no such terrorist activities in that area”.

Meanwhile, in its exclusive report after the incident in January 2023, PRNigeria reported how state officials ‘misled’ military airstrike on alleged innocent Herders in the state.

The report reads: “The airstrike was ordered after the Military High Command received credible intelligence that some terrorists moved into some communities around the boundary between Nasarawa and Benue states.

“A joint operation involving the military, security and intelligence components was then mobilized to go and take out the terrorists only for a particular state government official (name withheld) to give the team a lead to location, leading to the bombing of the targets.”

By PRNigeria