Friday, October 3, 2014 11:03 pm
Part of Alpha jet wreckage: the military denies it is their missing plane
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, in his latest video, showed a man described as a Nigerian air force pilot being beheaded, after his jet was shot down by the insurgents.
The victim of the barbaric act, in the video wears a camouflage print T-shirt and with a heavily bandaged hand in a sling, is seen later kneeling in front of an unmasked Boko Haram fighter in combat fatigues and saying in English that he was one of the pilots.
He appears to give his name, rank and date of birth but the video is inaudible.
A screengrab taken on October 2, 2014 from a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram and obtained by AFP shows a Boko Haram member standing on the wreckage of an alleged Nigerian air force jet the group claim to have shot down.
But he was beheaded after he finished speaking.
Shekau as he appears in new video
The Nigerian military has however denied that the man killed was its officer. It also denied that the jet shot down was its own, saying that it is still searching for it.
An air force Alpha jet was declared missing on 14 September, while on a mission in Adamawa state, one of the three states under Boko Haram siege.
Shekau had claimed in the footage obtained by AFP on Thursday that militants shot down the Alpha Jet and showed wreckage of an aircraft which included the Nigerian Air Force’s green and white roundel.
Asked directly about whether the man was an air force pilot, as claimed, spokesman Air Commodore Dele Alonge told AFP: “The man shown in the Boko Haram video is not our officer.
“The picture of a man beheaded in the video is superimposed,” he said without elaborating. “Our plane is still missing and we are looking for it. Boko Haram is just making unfounded claims.”
AFP asked the same question from defence spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade, who announced last week that Shekau was dead.
He said: “No level or amount of barbaric display of bestial atrocities will distract the Nigerian military from sustaining the tempo of ongoing operations to decimate, degrade and bring the remnants of the terrorists already in disarray to due justice.
“The campaign against terror is still recording the expected result in the front. Nigerians should not despair,” he said in a text message that was repeated on his Twitter account.
Nigeria’s military has been under pressure to reverse Boko Haram territorial gains in three northeast states in recent months, with reports that soldiers have fled militant attacks and complaints about a lack of adequate weapons.
According to one security analyst who tracks the conflict, the Alpha Jet sent a signal that it had been hit and the two pilots’ families met air force officers in the days that followed and were told it had crashed.
The jet came down in the heart of rebel-held territory, making search and rescue impossible, he added.
In the video, Shekau is seen on the back of a pick-up truck firing a powerful anti-aircraft gun and boasting about other aircraft Boko Haram has shot down.
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8 Comments
Your ignorance is legendary!.. Did you ask why almost all the religious leaders and traditional rulers killed by boko haram were Muslims ..? I.e. Sheikh JAFAR, AlBani, Genral Shuwa etc.. Those they attempted include Emir of Kano Ado Bayero and even General Buhari. Then we caught Pastor Oritsejafor (CAN President)… and his private jet with millions of dollars for Arms deal in South Africa, not Sultan of Sokoto!… Wake up from your ignorance pleeeaaasee…
You are so IGNORANT!… Which one of the WORLD WARS was caused by MUSLIMS?… Was Adolf HITLER a Muslim?… Was it Muslims that killed thousands of Serbians in former Yugoslavia or was it Serbians that killed thousands of Croatian Muslims?.. Who bombed Hiroshima with Atomic/Nuclear Bombs..? Was it Muslims?… The simple fact is the MUSLIM world has oil (good thing) while the others have WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (bad thing)… The third category are the ignorant siddon-look like you!
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David u re vry stupid 2 think Doz things re Muslims,u Ppl hv been lookin 4 ways 2 black paint da religion and there re still massive converts.Am Sry 4 u,cuz u re ignorant.USELESS THING!
This struggle between good and evil will last another 448 years. We are not likely to see the end in our life time. Our duty now is that of damage control and contain the spread of these extremists to limited areas. This is an ideology more powerful than communism as it has religious backing and therefore beyond reasoning, beyond obvious facts, based on historical deceptions and pride, rooted in the culture of a quarter of the world population. It is the rebirth of the sixth empire in the middle east and therefore a delicate issue to flight and only the true God can resolve this multifaceted deception of mankind that kills, steals and destroys on purely the will of God. If they are wrong, they will be decimated by the wicked and finally destroyed by the true God together with their sponsors. We should therefore not panic but face this issue with firmness in upholding the gains of mankind’s freedom in the past 5oo years without intimidation, graceful in upholding fairness in justice, bear the banner of the truth in the threats of death, confront the falsehood without being malicious, cooperate with like minded organization’s with similar cultural background. We cannot wish it away but work ceaselessly with similar vigour as theirs without fainting or despair at some of our failures with the belief that mankind will eventually prevail. I belief GOD is watching us and wants us to decide and make our choice between good and evil irrespective of our various religious convictions.
Bobby G
Muslim is a very useless faith and believe, that is why we haven’t seen
even one group of Nigerian Muslims coming out to march against or
condemn Boko Haram, ISIS, The Taliban, Al Qaida killing!
Islam/Muslims is the problem of the world, check out who are the people causing
trouble in countries where there is war like palestine, gaza and co.
You
can imagine people killing for allah on this video, a helpless god
called Allah that is too weak and incapable to deliver justice except
through human hands, a weak god who hides to commit crimes while cowards
and fanatical followers hides in the dark, a very useless believe that
preaches violence.
Muslim is a very useless faith and believe, that is why we haven’t seen
even one group of Nigerian Muslims coming out to march against or
condemn Boko Haram, ISIS, The Taliban, Al Qaida killing!
Islam/Muslims
is the problem of the world, check out who are the people causing
trouble in countries where there is war like palestine, gaza and co,
You
can imagine people killing for allah on this video, a helpless god
called Allah that is too weak and incapable to deliver justice except
through human hands, a weak god who hides to commit crimes while cowards
and fanatical followers hides in the dark, a very useless believe that
preaches violence.
why is the military playing with our sensibility. if they insist that boko haram are lying about shekau being alive what about the burnt jet, what about the pilot who has been recognise by his friends and colleagues, who then are they deceiving. The military is busy trying young boys who join the army in order to uphold the territory of Nigeria are being tried and sentence to death. what about the military top rank that have been embezzling the money that is supposed to adequately equip these young men and to adequately motivate them to fight the boko haram. Mr President should please tell Nigerians what he is doing about the high corruption in the military. At least the American ambassador to Nigeria has asked Mr President to investigate the billions of a former chief of army staff