Airforce strikes kill 300 Boko Haram members

The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar disclosed yesterday that no fewer than 300 members of the Boko Haram sect were killed in an air strike conducted at night.
This is just as the State Security Service yesterday said it has arrested the alleged mastermind of the 2013 terror attacks on a secondary school in Yobe State, which claimed the lives of forty two (42) people.
Abubakar made this disclosure while addressing men of the Nigerian Air Force deployed for the counter-insurgency operations in Borno state.
He spoke alongside the state Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima shortly after commissioning an emergency hospital and borehole for internally displaced persons in Bama.
He said the Air Force now has the capacity to attack at any time, both day and night, and that the insurgents have no more hiding place.
Addressing the troops, Abubakar said: “I cannot but say thank you, I am very happy to note that since August 16 to now you undertook extensive air operation and on account of that we are able to deal with this terrorists trying to make life difficult for our people.”
He added that: “I want to say from the briefing that I received from the Air component commander that I am satisfy with what you have done, I am satisfy with the outcome of the air operation.
“Of particular note is the operation you conducted on the 19th of this month, it was a night operation and we were very lucky to deal with these guys (insurgents) who had en-massed somewhere and were planning to go out to attack a target. We are very happy to note that about 300 of them will not be available to commit any evil again.”
He said the only way that other insurgents will not suffer the same fate is for them to come out and surrender.
Sadiq said: “We have for once deal with them and we want to urge others in their own interest to surrender their rifles and their weapons and come out to hand over themselves and face justice that is the only thing that will safe them. I want to urge you guys to continue this intensive air operations and continue to make it impossible for them to come out to kill innocent Nigerians.”
He told the officers that: “We are very happy with the progress you have recorded and I want to assure you also that the Air Force will continue to provide for your needs and we will try as much as possible to build your capacity in the area of training, we will try to address aircraft maintenance challenges so that whenever you fly, you fly with the best of airplanes.
“We also want to assure you that we will provide for your welfare needs especially in the area of accommodation, medical needs and then the needs of your family that are there in different barracks across the country.”
He assured them that: “So much is still going to be committed to see that you have the best, to whom much is given much is expected, I am very happy with the progress you have made, the fact that you were able to conduct this night operation has sent a very clear signal to Boko Haram that if they want to continue to live they must come out in their own interest, drop their riffles and face justice.
“If they do not do that, we make sure we get them wherever they hide, with the kind of capacity we have now they have no hiding place. I want to thank you once more and want to tell you to maintain the tempo of this air operation, we will provide you with all that is needed to conduct your operation.”
The Chief of Air Staff requested the unit in Maiduguri to continue to support the IDPs camps both in Maiduguri and in Bama.
In his remarks Governor Shettima thanked the Nigerian Air Force for the demonstration of love not only on the field of war but in the gift of the borehole and the hospital.
He said whenever the history of the sad Boko Haram war is written, the name of the Nigerian Air Force and other Armed Forces and security would be etched in gold.
On the Yobe killing, the State Security Service, SSS, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Tony Opuiyo, gave the name of the alleged mastermind as Mudaisiru Jibrin, a spiritual leader of the Boko Haram sect.
The SSS said he was arrested in Kano, three years after he allegedly coordinated the killing of 42 people in Government Secondary School, Mamudo, Yobe State. The dead were mostly students and a few teachers.
The SSS said Mr. Jibrin was arrested in the Yankaba neighbourhood in Kano, where he was operating as a spiritual leader for a new Boko Haram sleeper cell.
“The Service also arrested one Mudaisiru Jibrin aka Namakele/Alarrama on 17th July, 2016, at Sauna quarters, Yankaba area in Kano. Jibrin was the spiritual leader to a newly uncovered Boko Haram cell in Kano. Preliminary investigation so far conducted revealed that he was also the mastermind of the shooting of some students at Government Secondary School (GSS), Mamudo village near Potiskum, Yobe State, in 2013,” the statement said.
The SSS said the arrest was, “ In furtherance to ongoing tactical and counter-terrorism operations to degrade the capabilities of criminal gangs/syndicates in their hide-outs across the Federation, the Department of State Services (DSS) wishes to apprise the general public of recent successes recorded.”
The SSS also said that, it apprehended one Aikhoje Moses, on 19th August 2016, at Azagha by-pass off the Benin–Asaba Expressway in Edo State. Before his arrest, Moses had threatened the diplomatic community in Nigeria, particularly the Consular-Generals of Switzerland and Denmark and their Embassies in Nigeria, warning them to leave the Country.
According to the SSS, other terrorists were arrested in Kaduna, Auchi, Zamfara, Kebbi . Benue and Port Harcourt