By Yusuf Boluwatife
The Nigerian Air Force has reacted to the allegations made by the Wall Street Journal that it paid N20m as ransom to bandits in exchange for an anti-aircraft gun seized from the Nigerian Army.
Wall Street Journal had published a report on Sunday stating that the kidnapping gang encamped in Nigeria’s Rugu forest “seized an antiaircraft gun in a clash with a military unit. That pose that a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had been planning to fly to his hometown about 80 miles away, and the government needed to buy it back.”
The newspaper further reported that the force had acted as go-between for the deal as the President Muhammadu Buhari was planning a trip to Katsina, his home state.
Accordingly, the US media outlet stated that N20 million was delivered to the bandits in Rugu Forest by a Nigerian Air Force officer, who leaked details of the operation under anonymity, because the military realised that it would be too risky to leave the weapon in the hands of violent criminals operating in an area the presidential jet would fly over.
“The mission to buy back the anti-aircraft gun began with a handoff from a high-ranking air force intelligence officer in the capital Abuja: a black zip-up bag he said was full of 20 million Nigerian naira,” the paper reported, after stating that such military hardware in the hands of bandits “posed a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had been planning to fly to his hometown about 80 miles away.”
However, the Nigerian Air Force has denied making such payment to bandits in exchange for weapons.
In a statement on Sunday, the agency’s spokesperson, Air Commodore, Edward Gabkwe said there was no truth in the statement as the Force has done nothing of such.
“The said report is totally false. It should therefore be taken as fake news and disregarded. Indeed, we ordinarily would not have responded to such baseless and utterly illogical allegation but for the need to set the record straight as well as to affirm the NAF’s unflinching commitment to decisively dealing with the armed bandits and all other criminals elements in the country in partnership with other services of the Armed Forces and other security agencies,” the statement reads in part.
