Nigerian Air Force and drone teams deployed to trackthe terrorists holding 44 abducted pupils and teachers in Oyo State’s forests could not penetrate the thick canopy of the Old Oyo National Park, according to the General Officer Commanding, 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Chinedu Nnebeife.
He explained that the failure of aerial surveillance, forced troops into a ground assault, which resulted in the death of an officer and a soldier.
Nnebeife disclosed this during a press conference on Monday while giving an account of the more than month-long operation that culminated in the rescue of the victims, who had spent 56 days in captivity after gunmen stormed three schools in the Ahoro-Esiele, Yawota and Alawusa communities on May 15.
He said, “Because of the nature of the forest, how thick it is, we had drone teams, we have Nigerian Air Force following up, but in some of those areas, you can’t even see, if you are under that base, you can’t see the rays of sunlight from those places and the Air Force flew, they couldn’t see anything.
“The drone team also flew, we didn’t get anything from those things and that was how we insisted on ground operation. It has to be ground, we have to go deep into the forest, and it’s during one of these operations that we lost the officer and the soldier, that particular day, and some other ones who were wounded. One of them is actually serious because he has a broken arm due to gunshot wound,” he said.
He said the setback forced him to take over full command of the operation from the garrison commander, drawing in a wider array of forces and intelligence assets from across the country to sustain the ground effort.
“The operation continued and we had to like involve a lot of agents, and I had to take over the whole operation completely from the garrison commander because we had to now bring in troops and forces from different places, providing intelligence, and I had to coordinate all these teams together.,” he said.