Daniel Atori and Emmanuel Onani 
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Taoreed Lagbaja, has urged troops not to allow the attacks on some of their colleagues to kill their morale, but to remain resolute in bringing Nigeria’s enemies to their knees and restoring sanity in troubled areas. He made the call yesterday when he addressed troops in Niger State where some those ambushed by insurgents in the Zungeru general area paid the supreme price.
Lagbaja said: “Protecting lives and defending your nation is the noblest service anyone can offer. “You are therefore in the noble profession of arms and must not allow your morale to dwindle. We must defeat the adversaries of our people and take back every inch of space where they are hibernating in our land.” Meanwhile, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it will sustain aggressive air strikes on terrorists and other criminal elements until they are brought to their knees.
In a statement yesterday by the Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, the NAF warned against circulating the wreckage of the crashed MI-171 helicopter with bodies of victims at Chukuba Village in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. The military said: “While it is not in the character of the NAF to respond to such claims, particularly one peddled by terrorists, concerns expressed by well-meaning Nigerians on the need to address the propaganda becomes imperative.
“Like all military organisations involved in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, incidences of fatalities, mishaps and crashes are sometimes inevitable. “For the NAF, the last eight years has seen an increased level of air operations in efforts at checkmating the nefarious activities of terrorists and criminal elements in the country.”
It added: “With heightened levels of air operations, occasioned by an enhanced fleet, the likelihood of air mishaps and accidents at times become unavoidable and inevitable due to various reasons. Indeed, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, said this much when he hosted Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State, yesterday, at his office where he noted that the rates of aircraft accidents/incidences are directly proportional to the heightened level of air operations.
“While the NAF regrets such unfortunate incidents, especially as they involve the loss of lives of our colleagues, the Service will never shy away from unravelling the probable cause of the crash with a view to drawing lessons.” In the widely circulating video, the well-armed terrorists can be heard boasting that they had brought down the NAF helicopter with their AK-47 assault rifles.
