The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has described the bombing of a civilian settlement by an Air Force fighter jet as a tragic mistake.
Air Marshal Abubakar spoke at the 117 Air Combat Training Group (ACTG), Kainji on Wednesday during the deployment of about 200 Air Force troops to The Gambia.
He said the pilots got airborne to save lives but a mistake led to the “tragic loss of lives.”
Abubakar said: “It was a very tragic thing yesterday (Tuesday), our pilots got airborne hoping to save lives but unfortunately there was a tragic mistake which lead to the loss of life of innocent people, we have been operating for eight years in the North East now we have flown close to 6000hrs, this is the first time we are having this tragedy.
“This is very tragic and unfortunate incident, sometimes it does happen in war, I want to say that we share in the pains and sorrows of the families that have lost loved ones, I want to sympathise with those that are wounded.
“We have directed our Chief of medical services to provide medical facility in Maiduguri to the wounded so that they can also be treated there in addition to other medical facilities that is available in Maiduguri.”
He assured that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) will conduct a thorough investigation into the accident.
“Also we are putting up a high-powered committee at the Air Force level, I know the theatre commander is also working hard to find out what really happened, the information we have are very sketchy, we don’t want to pre-empt the findings of this committee both at the headquarters level and the Committee that has been set up.
“It is very tragic and unfortunate but I want to assure as a professional service we will continue to evaluate our procedures and processes so that we can be effective in dealing with those that are out to kill innocent people and not what really happened on Tuesday.
The troops deployment to The Gambia was a mandate of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to enforce the results of the December 1, 2016 presidential election in that country.
The Air Force personnel were airlifted from Kainji to Dakar in Senegal. The troops which included the Special Forces, Combat Support Group, Technicians, Medical officials etc were airborne in the Hercules C-130 military transport plane.
The CAS who addressed the troops urged them to keep Nigeria’s flag flying by being professional and to conduct themselves to the Air Force high standard.
“They have been given the task which is very well defined, and we have put together all the air assets that we think are necessary to ensure that we are able to to successfully conduct this operation and that is what we have on the ground here,” Abubakar said.
Among the platforms being deployed to the Gambia include: fighter airplanes, helicopters, C-130 and the large utility helicopter which also be useful in the conduct of the operation.
“What we have here are men that are highly trained, highly skilled they know their job and they know their task, and as a professional service the commander of the air assets will work together with other commanders and they will come up with what is required in terms of plans, to be able to execute their tasks and come back home,” Abubakar said.
Also, it was reliably gathered that the Nigerian Army is also set to deploy to the Gambia on Thursday. The Army troops will be airlifted by the C-130 transport plane. The Navy had on Monday deployed it’s newest battleship, NNS Unity to the tiny West African country.
