Nigerian Air Force Says Operations To Locate Dapchi Girls Unsuccessful, Deploys More Assets

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it has deployed additional air assets, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, to the Northeast in a renewed effort at locating school girls still missing following Boko Haram attack on Government Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, last Monday. 

The Air Force said this followed failure its initial operations conducted in a covert manner to yield the desired results.

The Federal Government confirmed on Sunday that 110 of the schoolgirls were still missing.


Air Vice Marshall Olatokunbo Adesanya, Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force who announced this in a statement on Sunday said following confirmation of reports that some of the girls were yet to be accounted for, the NAF had discreetly deployed some ISR platforms and helicopters to search for and possibly locate the missing girls as well as the Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs).

He added that the failure of the initial search operations necessitated the stepping up the search operations.

“Accordingly, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, directed the immediate deployment of additional air assets and NAF personnel to the Northeast with the sole mission of conducting day and night searches for the missing girls.

“It is noteworthy that the renewed efforts at locating the girls are being conducted in close liaison with other surface security forces,” NAF said while assuring that it will spare no efforts at possibly locating the girls via its air operations.

The Air Force also appeal to locals who might have any information that could lead to the location of the girls to make such information available to it or other relevant security agencies.