{"id":11063,"date":"2016-08-22T13:49:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11063"},"modified":"2016-08-22T13:49:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:49:17","slug":"we-are-going-to-the-niger-delta-to-protect-people-and-oil-facilities-not-to-bomb-villages-air-force-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11063","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We are going to the Niger Delta to protect people and oil facilities not to bomb villages&#8221; &#8211; Air force Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Chief of Air Staff, <a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Air-chief.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11065\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11065\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Air-chief.jpg\" alt=\"Air chief\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a>Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has assured that the Nigerian Air Force would not bomb the Niger Delta, but would protect the people and facilities.<br \/>\nAbubakar who disclosed that the air force would soon commence its operations in the South-South, \u201cWe are not going to bomb the Niger Delta; we are going to protect the people and oil and gas infrastructure,\u201d he stated.<br \/>\nThe Chief of Air Staff Abubakar, who spoke during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Saturday about the whereabout of the Chibok girls disclosed that Nigerian Air Force has no intelligence on whether the Chibok girls are in Sambisa Forest or not. He, however, said the NAF was working round the clock to rescue the girls and other Nigerians abducted by Boko Haram.<br \/>\nWhen Abubakar was asked if the air force had any intelligence on whether Chibok girls were in the Sambisa Forest or not, he said, \u201cHonestly we don\u2019t. That is the truth of the matter. Even if you see women that are dressed in hijab, how are you sure they are women; that they are not men? It is only when you get there and they remove the hijab that you now realise that they are men and they have their rifles.<br \/>\n\u201cThere is no credible intelligence that will specifically tell you that these girls are here.\u201d<br \/>\nHe said the air force flew its planes daily with the hope of sighting the Chibok girls, adding that the military, like other Nigerians, was passionate about them.<br \/>\nHe said about 50 per cent of the NAF flying missions in counter-insurgency operations were devoted to Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to him, the ISR is aimed at rescuing the Chibok girls and other Nigerians abducted by the sect.<br \/>\nHe said, \u201cThere is no day that the sun rises and sets that we do not go out hoping to see these girls. From January this year to August 17, we flew 2,600 hours. About 50 per cent of that was Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are hoping that through the intelligence, we will be able to capture the movement of those girls; we will be able to locate what we consider legitimate targets.\u201d<br \/>\nHe dismissed the latest Boko Haram video, where the sect displayed some girls, which it claimed were killed by military bombardment, as cheap propaganda.<br \/>\nAbubakar explained that there was no way bodies of people killed by bombardment could be intact as shown in the video.<br \/>\nHe stated, \u201cEven the IED (improvised explosive device) that they (the sect) developed, have you ever seen a complete body together after an attack on any location?\u201d<br \/>\nHe insisted that what was shown in the video could not have been something that happened after an air strike.<br \/>\nHe added, \u201cThese guys are just trying to whip up sentiment because they know that every Nigerian is concerned about the girls.\u201d<br \/>\nHe said although there was no military operation without collateral damage, the air force was doing everything possible to determine legitimate targets.<br \/>\nThe air force chief said Sambisa forest, which is about 60,000 square kilometres, was a difficult terrain, especially for the land forces.<br \/>\nHe explained that equipment could get stuck in the forest during the rainy season.<br \/>\nHe added that with what the air force had seen from its reconnaissance, it was difficult to say that the place was still occupied.<br \/>\nAbubakar said with the logistics base of the sect destroyed by the air force, it would be easier for land forces to move into the forest during the dry season.<br \/>\nHe added that NAF had entered into partnership with 15 Nigerian universities and polytechnics, through which it had been producing spare parts to service grounded aircraft.<br \/>\nHe said, \u201cOur aircraft require spare parts from time to time. Since most of these spare parts are not available here, we need to look inward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=9992&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has assured that the Nigerian Air Force would not bomb the Niger Delta, but would protect the people and facilities. Abubakar who disclosed that the air force would soon commence its operations in the South-South, \u201cWe are not going to bomb the Niger Delta; we are going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[2810,34,201],"class_list":["post-11063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-air-marshal-sadique-abubakar","tag-boko-haram","tag-niger-delta"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Air-chief.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-2Sr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11066,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11063\/revisions\/11066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}