Boko Haram has released a video that shows charred plane wreckage and the beheading of a man identified as a pilot of a missing Nigerian Air Force jet.
The group had claimed a it shot down a Nigerian fighter jet, Naijalog recalls that the Army has been searching for an Alpha jet and its 2-man crew since September, 11 when it left Yola, Adamawa State capital on a mission against Boko Haram.
The Associated Press (AP) which reported details of the footage on Friday said the video was made available to it “through the same channels used previously.”
The video, according to the AP, shows a kneeling man in a camouflage vest with his right hand in a sling, with a fighter hovering over him with an axe, which is later used in the beheading.
Speaking in English, the victim identifies himself as a Wing Commander in the Nigerian Air Force and says he was undertaking a mission in Kauri area of northeast Borno state.
“We were shot down and our aircraft crashed,” he says. “To this day I don’t know the whereabouts of my second pilot.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has reacted to the beheading of the Airforce personnel.
In tweet by the Director Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, the Military declared that the act would not deter troops from comprehensively routing the terrorists from their hideouts.
The military assured Nigerians that no level or amount of barbaric display of bestial atrocities would distract the Nigerian military from sustaining the tempo of ongoing operations to decimate, degrade and bring the remnants of the terrorists.
The military spokesperson concluded by urging Nigerians not to despair.