The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, Saturday said it was yet to locate the
missing girls taken away by Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014 from
a school in Chibok, Borno State.
The clarification came on the heels of media reports suggesting that
the NAF had found the location where the kidnapped girls were being held
in Sambisa forest.
In a statement by its spokesperson, Ayodele Famuyiwa, the Nigerian
Air Force categorically denied the claim that it spotted the girls.
“The attention of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been drawn to a
statement to the effect that the NAF has located the position of the
Chibok girls,’ Mr. Famuyiwa said.
“Please let it be known that this statement is a misrepresentation of
the interview that the NAF Director of Public Relations gave the
Channels Television that was aired on Friday 12 February 2016.
“The NAF is hereby making it categorically clear that in the said
interview the Director made mention of the NAF’s ability to identify
POSSIBLE LOCATION that the girls might be in.
“Hence, the NAF wishes to categorically state that it has at no time
identified the specific location of the Chibok girls. However, it is
working round the clock with surveillance aircraft covering the over
157,000 km2 area of the North East in order to identify the position of
not only the Chibok girls but other Nigerians that might have been held
captives.
“Towards the realization of this goal, the NAF has from January 2016
till date using aircraft, ISR platforms such as ATR-42, B-350 and CH-3
UAV flown surveillance missions totaling over 346 hours consuming about
85,887 litres of Jet A-1 and 3,830 litres of Mogas costing
N15,337,862:50 and $19,150:00 respectively.”