Terrorist group, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for shooting down missing Nigerian Air Force (NAF) jet days after the aircraft lost contact with radar.
According to Premium Times, the Boko Haram terror group released a video showing its fighters shooting down an aircraft believed to be the alpha jet declared missing by the Nigerian Air Force.
In a seven-minute, thirty seconds video, the jet was seen flying low to the ground while the insurgents shot at it.
The jet went missing on Wednesday evening while carrying out a mission against the terrorists in Borno State.
Although, some experts have expressed serious doubts that Boko Haram has the capacity to do what it claimed, given the distance of the jet to the position where the insurgents were.
The Boko Harem fighters were seen moving along a dusty road, in gun trucks and on motor bikes in the footage.
The footage also showed that the aircraft exploded in the air before it crashed. Towards the end of the footage, a masked insurgent climbed a wreckage of the aircraft and pointed his gun into the sky
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Relations of NAF, Commodore Edward Gabkwet in response said the viral video could be clips from a previous incident, insisting that the video is fraught with inconsistencies, which established that it was fake, adding that the lush vegetation in one of the clips suggest that it was not in the Northeast.
According to the NAF spokesperson:
“We have seen some videos, but there is nothing that has proven that the aircraft in those clips belongs to us, or have you seen a NAF aircraft number or the body of pilot or any NAF uniform? Until we get all these details strengthened out, we are not going to go into speculation.
“Intelligence report gathered by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) indicates that the Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar with 2 crew members on board on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 might have crashed,”
Gabkwet indicated that the mission was part of the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the northeast.
According to him, The Nigerian Air Force(NAF) Alpha jet marked NAF 475, crashed 30 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital, with two pilots, Flight Lieutenants John Abolarinwa and Ebiakpo Chapele at about 5.08 pm on Wednesday, March 31.
He added that NAF was not ruling out anything regarding the incident of crash and missing crewmembers. He said extensive search and rescue efforts were still ongoing by NAF surveillance aircraft, Special Forces and ground troops of the Nigerian Army.
