The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said on Saturday that though it was working hard on it, it was yet to locate where the over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State on 14 April, 2014 are being kept.
The Air Force said this in repudiation of reports in some newspapers earlier in the day which indicated that it has located where the abducted girls are being kept in Sambisa forest.
The newspapers had based their stories on an interview granted by Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, director of NAF Public Relations, to Channels television.
But the NAF Director of Public Relations in a statement he also signed said the reports are a misrepresentation of the interview that was aired on Friday, 12 February, 2016.
Group Captain Famuyiwa said what he told the television station is NAF’s ability to identify POSSIBLE LOCATION that the girls might be in.
He quickly added that NAF is working, using its surveillance aircraft to identify possible location of not only the Chibok girs, but other captives.
“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 captive,” said Famuyiwa.
“Towards the realization of this goal, the NAF had from January 2016 to 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.
“Therefore, whilst the specific position of the Chibok girls is not yet ascertained by the NAF, we have not folded our arms on the surveillance flights and will continue to use these flights to degrade the capacity of the terrorists and as soon as possible locate the position of the Chibok girls and other Nigerians that are under captivity,” said the NAF Director of Public Relations in the statement.
