The Director, Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, says the military airstrike of Jan. 24 in Nasarawa State only targeted and eliminated terrorists.<\/P>
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Famuyiwa said this while reacting to questions at a bi-weekly news briefing on the operations of the armed forces, on Thursday in Abuja.<\/P>
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He said the air strike was carried out after series of intel and surveillance, adding that innocent civilians were not killed as being speculated in some quarters.<\/P>
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He faulted the report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleging that the NAF bombarded herders who were evacuating their cattle in Kwatiri, a border community between Benue and Nasarawa.<\/P>
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In its report on June 7, HRW said \u201cNigerian authorities have provided little information and no justice\u201d with regard to the airstrike.<\/P>
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\u201cAlthough the authorities admitted carrying out the raid, the organisation said, they evaded \u201ckey questions\u201d concerning the circumstances surrounding the attack.<\/P>
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HRW said their preliminary investigations revealed that the pastoralists had gone to Kwatiri to pay fines for the release of their cattle seized by the Benue State Livestock Guards when they were struck in the air raid.<\/P>
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But in his reaction to the report on Thursday, NAF spokesman challenged the organisation to produce evidence to prove the allegation that those killed in the airstrike were not terrorists.<\/P>
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According to him, there had been Intel from several reliable sources of the activities of terrorists in that particular area.<\/P>
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\u201cYou are all aware of the nefarious activities of criminal elements in that part of the country.<\/P>
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\u201cWe are also aware that there is an ongoing operation, that is, Operation Whirl Stroke and the Intel came from several sources and even to the commander of that operation for the air component that there was plan by terrorists within that area to carry out a massive attack.<\/P>
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\u201cAnd then there was a secondary school in question that they also planned to kidnap students.<\/P>
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\u201cTo that extent, the air force carried out surveillance and the surveillance confirmed that there were terrorists and that surveillance continued for almost throughout the day until later in the evening when a truck appeared in that scene.<\/P>
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\u201cThe truck was suspected to have brought logistics to them and that was why approval was given by the appropriate authority that that truck be taken out and the truck was taken out.<\/P>
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\u201cNow if anyone is coming around to say innocent people were killed where is the photograph of the truck that brought the cattle that they are talking about?,\u201d he asked.<\/P>
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Famuyiwa said the claim that the people came there to pay for their cattle was not tenable.<\/P>
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He also challenged anyone accusing the military to come out with proofs such as photograph of the said truck, the cattle and dead bodies.<\/P>
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\u201cThe position of the air force is that terrorists were struck that day and whether it is whatever group and if they think they were innocent people, let them provide the evidence.<\/P>
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\u201cIf you think the military is going to give you the evidence of that operations for now, you won\u2019t get it because there are information that cannot be declassified now.<\/P>
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\u201cLet the people who said innocent citizens were killed, provide the evidence and let the press do the analysis and then the truth will come up,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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Source: News Agency of Nigeria<\/P>
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The Director, Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, says the military airstrike of Jan. 24 in Nasarawa State only targeted and eliminated terrorists.Famuyiwa said this while reacting to questions at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n