Nigerian Military Intensifies Search for Missing Jet, Rules Out Sabotage
Monday, 15 September 2014 23:35 Written by Mohammed Abubakar and Terhemba Daka (Abuja)and Laolu Akande (New York)
Nigerian Guardian
Reps may urge Jonathan to probe defence budget
THE Nigerian Air Force (NAF) yesterday restated that it was intensifying the search for one of its missing fighter jets and the two pilots in a village in Gombi Local Council area in Adamawa State.
But it ruled out possible sabotage in the development.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu, told State House correspondents after meeting with Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa yesterday that despite the inclement weather that had been hindering their deployment, the Air Force would not relent on its efforts at locating both the aircraft and the pilots.
The Alpha Jet NAF 446 with two pilots on board which left Yola about 10:45a.m.on a routine operational mission was to return at noon but was reported to have lost contacts with the base.
Amosu said: “One of our Alpha Jets went on routine operation in the North East and they lost contact with the control towers and that made us to immediately initiate search. The weather has not been helpful as we have deployed all our surveillance capability. The citizens have been very, very helpful and we have got good information from them.
“But you know, in the aviation sector, we have some specific information that we ought to have to make the search easy. But the information we are getting from the citizens is good but not sufficient enough for us to define the area of search. But we have an idea of where the aircraft could be.
“Do not forget that it is the open Sahel. Some people may think it is easy but in the open Sahel, sometimes it is even very challenging. Human beings standing may look like trees and again the area we are talking about we have operations going on there and we have limitations as to how low we come to conduct the search.
“I am hopeful that before the end of the day or week we should be able to provide credible information as to the location of the aircraft and then the pilots. But one thing is clear whatever problem they had an ejection was contemplated, it is therefore my hope that the pilots are still alive.”
Asked if he suspected sabotage, he said, “Sabotage no. Because it is a distance of just from Maiduguri to Yola. We are in full control of the air space. But don’t forget that when you lose radio signal it becomes very challenging. There are so many possibilities but we are working on it.”
Meanwhile, as the National Assembly reconvenes today for plenary activities including the consideration of the $1 billion foreign loan requested by the Federal Government among other sundry issues, the House of Representatives may advise President Goodluck Jonathan to commence the investigation of the utilisation of the budgets approved for the military and other security agencies in the country.
The Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Albert Sam-Tsokwa, who gave the hint while speaking to reporters in Abuja said considering the huge sums of money yearly allocated to the defence sector and the challenge faced by the military in confronting the Boko Haram menace, there was the need for the president to look inwards.
He disclosed that on resumption of plenary today, the lawmakers would deliberate on the $1 billion, which the president was requesting to prosecute the war.
“In doing that, we would tell the president to investigate the spending of the military to know the true position of the nation or we would be forced to take up the matter,” he told reporters ahead of resumption yesterday.
While expressing dismay, he said the avalanche of information on the activities of Boko Haram unleashing terror on Nigerian troops was worrisome, noting that the parliament would want the president to do soul-searching.
Meanwhile , President Barack Obama of the United States (U.S.) is under pressure to include Boko Haram in a new strategy to deal with ISIS in Syria and Iraq, according to informed sources.
Addressing the American nation on Wednesday night, Obama disclosed that the U.S. would go after ISIS wherever they may be, including in Syria, where he had been reluctant to launch military strikes earlier until the beheading of two American journalists by the terror group.
Already the U.S. has launched about 150 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq in the last several weeks, and it is expected to take similar actions in Syria in addition to equipping a moderate Syrian opposition ground troops against the group.
But while Obama’s plan is now gaining support including at the United Nations (UN), where he plans to chair a Security Council meeting on international counterterrorism next week, new voices are rising requesting the U.S. to include Boko Haram and other terror group in the new U.S. strategy.
UN sources said at the weekend that the planned Security Council meeting would create an opportunity for a global response to the issue of counterterrorism and confrontation of such groups like Boko Haram, and possibly securing greater U.S. resources to go after the terror group that is still holding over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls.
Besides pressure mounted behind closed doors within U.S. government circles and global platforms like the UN, there are also public statements being made in the U.S. and abroad on the need for Washington to strike Boko Haram and other terror groups as it deals with ISIS from the air.
Leading this charge is the government of Israel which has publicly enunciated the global connections of many of the terror groups including Al-Qaida, Hamas, ISIS, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. Similarly, the U.S.-based Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) has made such a request to the U.S. government.
Speaking a day after Obama announced a new strategy to go after ISIS, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram and Hezbollah were “branches of the same poisonous tree.”
Speaking in Israel at the annual international conference on counterterrorism on the anniversary of 9/11, he declared that those terror groups including Boko Haram “all present a clear and present danger to the peace and security of the world and to our common civilisation.”
“I believe that the battle against these groups is indivisible and it’s important not to let any of these groups succeed anywhere. Because if they gain ground somewhere, they gain ground everywhere. And their setbacks are also felt everywhere,” he said.
While the U.S. government has actually designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), U.S. sources point to an ambiguous stance on how much the Nigerian armed forces were willing to embrace U.S. military assistance.
So far, Nigeria’s attitude is unclear as U.S. sources revealed that the ambiguity of the Federal Government (on the extent of the U.S. government’s assistance on dealing with Boko Haram especially in the matter of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls) led to the location of the U.S. drones base in Chad and not Nigeria some months ago.
This is despite the fact that the drone base is meant to help in the search of the over 200 Nigerian girls abducted by Boko Haram. It would be the second U.S. drone base in the region, after the first base was located in Niger.
In a statement after Obama’s speech, CANAN also called on him “to include the degrading and destruction of Boko Haram in his counter-terrorism strategy.”
CANAN noted that after all, there were news reports that both ISIS and Boko Haram were now communicating, while the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls were still in captivity.
According to the U.S. group of Nigerian-Americans, “As the U.S. President Barack Obama is articulating a strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS, we urge him not to forget Boko Haram as well. Every moment we leave Boko Haram alone empowers the terrorists to become even more devious and devilish.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said to the Nigerian government in Abuja that the reputation of its military was at stake with the advance of Boko Haram, to the point that the terror group was laying claim to Bama, the second largest town in Borno State.
The U.S. top official on Africa also said the time of denial and pride was over, in what observers say was a pointer to the ambiguity of the Federal Government and the military to fully embrace U.S. military assistance.
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| Nigerian army in training. |
Nigerian Guardian
Reps may urge Jonathan to probe defence budget
THE Nigerian Air Force (NAF) yesterday restated that it was intensifying the search for one of its missing fighter jets and the two pilots in a village in Gombi Local Council area in Adamawa State.
But it ruled out possible sabotage in the development.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu, told State House correspondents after meeting with Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa yesterday that despite the inclement weather that had been hindering their deployment, the Air Force would not relent on its efforts at locating both the aircraft and the pilots.
The Alpha Jet NAF 446 with two pilots on board which left Yola about 10:45a.m.on a routine operational mission was to return at noon but was reported to have lost contacts with the base.
Amosu said: “One of our Alpha Jets went on routine operation in the North East and they lost contact with the control towers and that made us to immediately initiate search. The weather has not been helpful as we have deployed all our surveillance capability. The citizens have been very, very helpful and we have got good information from them.
“But you know, in the aviation sector, we have some specific information that we ought to have to make the search easy. But the information we are getting from the citizens is good but not sufficient enough for us to define the area of search. But we have an idea of where the aircraft could be.
“Do not forget that it is the open Sahel. Some people may think it is easy but in the open Sahel, sometimes it is even very challenging. Human beings standing may look like trees and again the area we are talking about we have operations going on there and we have limitations as to how low we come to conduct the search.
“I am hopeful that before the end of the day or week we should be able to provide credible information as to the location of the aircraft and then the pilots. But one thing is clear whatever problem they had an ejection was contemplated, it is therefore my hope that the pilots are still alive.”
Asked if he suspected sabotage, he said, “Sabotage no. Because it is a distance of just from Maiduguri to Yola. We are in full control of the air space. But don’t forget that when you lose radio signal it becomes very challenging. There are so many possibilities but we are working on it.”
Meanwhile, as the National Assembly reconvenes today for plenary activities including the consideration of the $1 billion foreign loan requested by the Federal Government among other sundry issues, the House of Representatives may advise President Goodluck Jonathan to commence the investigation of the utilisation of the budgets approved for the military and other security agencies in the country.
The Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Albert Sam-Tsokwa, who gave the hint while speaking to reporters in Abuja said considering the huge sums of money yearly allocated to the defence sector and the challenge faced by the military in confronting the Boko Haram menace, there was the need for the president to look inwards.
He disclosed that on resumption of plenary today, the lawmakers would deliberate on the $1 billion, which the president was requesting to prosecute the war.
“In doing that, we would tell the president to investigate the spending of the military to know the true position of the nation or we would be forced to take up the matter,” he told reporters ahead of resumption yesterday.
While expressing dismay, he said the avalanche of information on the activities of Boko Haram unleashing terror on Nigerian troops was worrisome, noting that the parliament would want the president to do soul-searching.
Meanwhile , President Barack Obama of the United States (U.S.) is under pressure to include Boko Haram in a new strategy to deal with ISIS in Syria and Iraq, according to informed sources.
Addressing the American nation on Wednesday night, Obama disclosed that the U.S. would go after ISIS wherever they may be, including in Syria, where he had been reluctant to launch military strikes earlier until the beheading of two American journalists by the terror group.
Already the U.S. has launched about 150 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq in the last several weeks, and it is expected to take similar actions in Syria in addition to equipping a moderate Syrian opposition ground troops against the group.
But while Obama’s plan is now gaining support including at the United Nations (UN), where he plans to chair a Security Council meeting on international counterterrorism next week, new voices are rising requesting the U.S. to include Boko Haram and other terror group in the new U.S. strategy.
UN sources said at the weekend that the planned Security Council meeting would create an opportunity for a global response to the issue of counterterrorism and confrontation of such groups like Boko Haram, and possibly securing greater U.S. resources to go after the terror group that is still holding over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls.
Besides pressure mounted behind closed doors within U.S. government circles and global platforms like the UN, there are also public statements being made in the U.S. and abroad on the need for Washington to strike Boko Haram and other terror groups as it deals with ISIS from the air.
Leading this charge is the government of Israel which has publicly enunciated the global connections of many of the terror groups including Al-Qaida, Hamas, ISIS, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. Similarly, the U.S.-based Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN) has made such a request to the U.S. government.
Speaking a day after Obama announced a new strategy to go after ISIS, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram and Hezbollah were “branches of the same poisonous tree.”
Speaking in Israel at the annual international conference on counterterrorism on the anniversary of 9/11, he declared that those terror groups including Boko Haram “all present a clear and present danger to the peace and security of the world and to our common civilisation.”
“I believe that the battle against these groups is indivisible and it’s important not to let any of these groups succeed anywhere. Because if they gain ground somewhere, they gain ground everywhere. And their setbacks are also felt everywhere,” he said.
While the U.S. government has actually designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), U.S. sources point to an ambiguous stance on how much the Nigerian armed forces were willing to embrace U.S. military assistance.
So far, Nigeria’s attitude is unclear as U.S. sources revealed that the ambiguity of the Federal Government (on the extent of the U.S. government’s assistance on dealing with Boko Haram especially in the matter of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls) led to the location of the U.S. drones base in Chad and not Nigeria some months ago.
This is despite the fact that the drone base is meant to help in the search of the over 200 Nigerian girls abducted by Boko Haram. It would be the second U.S. drone base in the region, after the first base was located in Niger.
In a statement after Obama’s speech, CANAN also called on him “to include the degrading and destruction of Boko Haram in his counter-terrorism strategy.”
CANAN noted that after all, there were news reports that both ISIS and Boko Haram were now communicating, while the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls were still in captivity.
According to the U.S. group of Nigerian-Americans, “As the U.S. President Barack Obama is articulating a strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS, we urge him not to forget Boko Haram as well. Every moment we leave Boko Haram alone empowers the terrorists to become even more devious and devilish.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said to the Nigerian government in Abuja that the reputation of its military was at stake with the advance of Boko Haram, to the point that the terror group was laying claim to Bama, the second largest town in Borno State.
The U.S. top official on Africa also said the time of denial and pride was over, in what observers say was a pointer to the ambiguity of the Federal Government and the military to fully embrace U.S. military assistance.
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