The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says the dreaded Boko Haram can no longer operate freely due to counter-insurgency efforts of the Force, even though the terrorists have not been completely flushed out.

The newly appointed Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, disclosed this on Saturday, at a parley with Defence Correspondents, at its Conference Centre and Suites in Abuja.

According to him, “As we can see today, we do not have Boko Haram moving freely like before, though they have not been completely defeated. The extent to which we have gone is a record of our own to limit the inability of the insurgents to operate.”

Speaking further on the achievements of the Nigerian Air Force in the counter-insurgency operation, Adesanya maintained that, “Most of us know that Boko Haram don’t even regroup again and we are working closely with Nigerian Army to make sure that they don’t re-group.”

"With the advent of the current administration, we now have a lot of resources being put in place. We have young men and women pilots. The aircraft we now have has latest technologies hangouts, which is aiding our capacity to operate. NAF has not only limited itself in only fighting insurgency but also improving on education, clothing towards the needs of the IDPs. We as well organise trainings, develop innovations,” Adesanya added.

On NAF’s effort in curbing the kidnapping spate in some parts of the country, he said “Actually, we have some limited operations in the South East. Even, the airpower has its limitation and does not really have the power to detect kidnapping. The challenge we have is, the aircraft cannot be seen everywhere at every point in time. When it comes to that, even when we have surveillance, there is no how to really know.”

He therefore called on the general public to always volunteer information to assist the Air Force in tackling all sorts of insurgency and kidnapping in the country.

Adesanya lamented the under-coverage of the activities, input and efforts of NAF, appealing to journalists to do more in disseminating its activities.

He said: “What should be uppermost is the interest of government. There are so many things, which NAF is doing but are not reported by the journalists.”

He assured that he would work towards organising a workshop to train and educate Correspondents, even on generic terms being used in the Air Force to aid their reportage.

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