By JOHN NWOKOCHA, Abuja

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Thursday dismissed report by Amnesty International (AI) claiming that Nigerian Air Force fighter jets killed about 38 herders in airstrikes in Nasarawa state.

“We didn’t kill innocent herders, Nigerians in Nasarawa”, spokesman of NAF, Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa said.

Muyiwa, Director, Public Relations and Information, NAF added that the AI was ‘biased’.

He said the report by AI was misleading and urged the Nigerian media to publish accurate information.

News Express recalls that sometime in January, following media reports, controversy had trailed the killing of some herders in the Rukubi community while they were returning from Makurdi, the Benue State capital, where they went to retrieve over 1,000 cows seized by the Benue Livestock Guards.

And recently, the Nigerian military was criticised for failing to own up to the airstrikes, in a report by the Human Rights Watch.

The HRW described the military’s delay in accepting responsibility for the attack as unacceptable, demanding an urgent, independent, impartial, and transparent inquiry.

The body also called on the military to ensure financial compensation and livelihood assistance to the victims and their families.

But Famuyiwa said, “the 38 herders’ killed in airstrikes carried out in January in Rukubi community of Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State were terrorists and not innocent persons”.

Famuyiwa was reacting to a question fielded by news men during the bi-weekly press briefing at Defence headquarters, Abuja.

The NAF spokesman said those killed were trying to wreak havoc, particularly the kidnapping of many school children at a secondary school in the location before they were eliminated. He added the air troops only killed the terrorists after thorough surveillance that took days.

The Nasarawa incident was widely reported in the media about six months ago, Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa challenged Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and others who claimed some herders and cows were killed during the airstrike to come out and show the pictorial evidence of dead animals and the deceased persons to the world.

Hear him, “On the 24th of January, even before then, there had been intel from several reliable sources of the activities of terrorists in that particular area. You are all aware of the nefarious activities of the criminal elements in that part of the country.

“You are also aware that there is an ongoing operation i.e. the Operation Whirl Stroke and the intel here from several sources and even to the commander of that operation, to the air component, that there was a plan by the terrorists within that area to carry out massive attacks.

“There was a secondary school in question that they also planned to kidnap students too. To that extent, the Air Force carried out surveillance. Remember there had been several intel that built up to that. But this particular intel, there was surveillance and the surveillance confirmed terrorists. I mean terrorists!

“And how did we know that they were terrorists? Because they have tactics they adopt, you see them coming on bikes in triples, converging at a location and after that, they disappear hiding under the forage. That surveillance continued almost throughout the day until later in the evening when a truck appeared in that scene.

“The truck was suspected to have brought logistics to them. And that was why the approval was given by the appropriate authority that, that truck should be checked out and in truth, it was taken out.”

“If you say people died, where is the truck? Where are the cattle? There was a truck. Where is the photograph of the dead bodies?

“The position with the Nigerian Air Force is that terrorists were struck that day and whether it is Miyetti Allah or whatever group that thinks there were innocent people, let them provide the evidence.

“If you think the military is going to give you the evidence of that operation for now, you won’t get it because there are some information that cannot be declassified now but let’s put the burden on the people. If they came there to collect their cow, where are the cows? Where is the picture of the truck that was struck? How did those people die?

“I think the press needs to do better than this. And if you look at it, after that particular incident, have you heard of any terrorist activity, or attack in that area? I think we need to do much better. No innocent person was killed.

“Let the people who said innocent people were killed provide the evidence and let the press do that analysis and let the truth come out.”

Update news