The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has stated that the missing NAF Alpha Jet aircraft was not shot down by Boko Haram, urging Nigerians to ignore the video which is being circulated on social media as well as media report that the jet had been shot down.
The NAF explained that one of such videos began with sporadic shooting by several terrorists, including underage children on motorcycles and vehicles. It later skipped abruptly to a scene depicting an aircraft exploding mid-air, supposedly as a result of enemy action. Another part of the video showed a terrorist, who, while standing by the wreckage, claimed that they had shot down the aircraft.
It stated that it is evident that most parts of the video were deliberately doctored to give the false impression that the aircraft was shot down; citing examples, NAF said that the video clip failed to show the correlation between the sporadic shooting, which from observation was aimed at ground targets, and the sudden mid-air explosion.
In addition, it is almost impossible for an aircraft to have exploded mid-air, in the manner it did in the video, and still have a good part of its fuselage, including it's tail, intact, adding that an explosion impact of that nature would have scattered the debris of the aircraft across several miles.
NAF said,
"It is obvious that the Boko Haram Sect, in its characteristic manner of employing false propaganda, is seeking to claim credit for what was obviously an air accident that could have been caused by several other reasons; particularly at a time when the capability of the group to inflict mayhem has been significantly degraded by the Armed Forces of Nigeria."
The Force urged Nigerians to ignore the contents of the videos making rounds until all investigations as how the aircraft crashed was completed.
It restated that the force remains resolute and will continue to work assiduously, in synergy with sister services and other security agencies to rid the North East of all terrorists elements.
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