The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has insisted that fatalities, mishaps, and crashes are sometimes inevitable for all military organisations involved in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.
Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, the Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Gabkwet was reacting to a video clip circulating on social media purportedly depicting the wreckage of the crashed NAF MI-171 helicopter with the bodies of victims at Chukuba Village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
According to him, it wasn’t in the personality of the NAF to reply to such claims, especially those peddled by terrorists.
“With heightened levels of air operations, occasioned by an enhanced fleet, the likelihood of air mishaps and accidents at times becomes unavoidable and inevitable due to various reasons,” he stated.
Gabkwet noted that NAF, for the last eight years, has seen an increased level of air operations in efforts to check the nefarious activities of terrorists and criminal elements in Nigeria.
He added that indeed, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, the Chief of Air Staff, disclosed that much when he hosted Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State yesterday.
