By Linus Aleke
The Hierarchy of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF), Thursday broke its stone silence, over the inquiry by Human Rights Watch – a non governmental organization’s request for the outcome of investigation into the alleged killing of civilians in Nasarawa state during air bombardment of terrorists target in part of Nasarawa state by the Air Component of Operations Whirl Stroke, following an actionable Intelligence.
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In January 2023, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule confirmed that there was a bomb blast in a community close to the border between Nasarawa and Benue states.
Governor Sule noted that sizable number of cattle was kept, at the site of the bomb incident.
According to him, “It has to do with some Fulani who got to rescue their cows and after rescuing the cows, there was a bomb blast at the area where they gathered cows to bring them back to Nasarawa state.
As a result of that, I have been on it all night, trying to solve the matter, Chief of Defence State, Miyatti Allah, all the security agents including our commissioner. Our deputy commissioners are on their way to Idoma, to ensure that we continue to down the tension that may generate as a result of this”.
Meanwhile, a recent report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), on the above subject matter, described as unacceptable Nigerian Military’s delay in owning up to the killing and injuring dozens of civilians in its erroneous airstrikes.
The report said, 39 civilians were killed in the erroneous airstrikes on January 24, 2023, and injured at least six others at Kwateri in Nasarawa State.
It added that at least 300 innocent people have been killed in airstrikes targeted at bandits or Boko Haram Terrorists in the last seven years.
According to the report, “Since 2017, over 300 people are reported to have been killed by airstrikes that the Nigerian Air Force claimed were intended for bandits or members of the Islamist armed group Boko Haram, but instead hit civilians”.
But reacting to the current report by Human Rights Watch, following a question by a defence correspondent, during the biweekly briefing at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), in Abuja, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), said, no innocent person was killed in the targeted airstrike.
The Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, challenged the people who said innocent citizens were killed to provide the evidence, and let the press do their analysis and then the truth will come out.
He noted that the position of the Nigerian Air Force is that terrorists were struck that day, and whether it is Miyetti Allah, or whatsoever group that thinks that they were innocent people, let them provide the evidence.
“If they think the military is going to give the evidence of that operations now, they would not get it, because there are information that cannot be declassified now. But, let us put the burden on the people, if they came there to collect their cows, where are the cows? Where is the picture of the strike? How did those people die? I think, the press need to do better than this and if they look at it, after that particular incident, have we heard of any terrorists activities in that area?,” NAF spokesperson queried.
Going down memory lane, Air Commodore Famuyiwa, said, the latest interest of the media on the airstrike incident in Nasarawa earlier this year resulted from the Human Rights Watch inquiry on the issue.
According to him, “The Human Rights Watch wrote to the Headquarters, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), on this particular allegations, wanting to know what happened. Unfortunately, based on the Human Rights Watch report or their position on what happened, the press seems to leverage on what the position of the organization is, without necessarily hearing from the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). Alas, the very sad aspect of it is that the press seems to blow up the position of human rights watch, without doing their own discreet investigation to be sure that whatever position they took was right”.
He recalled that on the 24th of January 2023, and even before then, there were Intelligence from several reliable sources on the activities of terrorists in that particular area.
The NAF spokesperson explained, “You are all aware of the nefarious activities of the criminal elements in that area. You are also aware that there is an ongoing operations, code named operations Whirl Stroke, and the Intelligence came from several sources and even to the commander of that operations and to the Air Component, that there was plan by the terrorists within that area to carry out massive attack and there was a secondary school in question that they also planned to kidnap students. To that extent, the Air Force carried out surveillance. Remember that there had been several Intelligence on this particular issue, there was surveillance and the surveillance confirmed that there were terrorists and I mean terrorists. But how do we know that they were terrorists? We knew because they have tactics that they adopt. You see them coming on bikes in trickles, converging at a location and after that they disappear, hiding under the foliage”.
That surveillance, he said, continued through out the day, until later in the evening when a truck appeared in that scene.
The truck, he disclosed was suspected to have brought logistics to them and that was why approval was given by the appropriate authority that the truck should be taken out and the truck was taken out.
“Now, if anyone is coming around to say that innocent people were killed, has the press asked them, where is the photograph of the truck that brought the cattle that they are talking about? The claim is that they came there to come and collect their cattle. So, if you say that people died, where is the truck? Where are the cattle that were struck? Where is the photograph of the dead body and if you do your own investigation, you will discover that if they say that people died from a strike, there is going to be a way that the body will look. Did the press do that? No, they did not do that, and you seem to have taken position with those for whatever reason, want to put the military in disrepute,” he lamented.
