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From John Adams, Minna
As Nigerian Air Force continues its airstrikes on Bandits locations in parts of Niger state, recording huge successes in recent time, the state government has debunked reports of civilian casualties from these airstrikes.
The state government though acknowledged the ongoing military operations in some communities in Shiroro, Munya, Paikoro, Rafi and Mariga local government areas with a view to flushing out the gunmen, the reports in some social media platform suggesting that some civilians were killed in the airstrikes by the Nigerian Air force is not only untrue but misleading.
“The attention of the Niger State Government has been drawn to a report making the rounds on social media and other media platforms suggesting that some civilians were killed at Kurebe in Shiroro Local Government Area as a result of the ongoing Air and ground operations by the military and other security agencies in the state”.
It could be recalled that a youth association,
Coalition of Shiroro Associations (COSA) had in a statement by it spokesperson, Salis M Sabo Esq alleged that a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force killed six children in Kurebe, Shiroro Local Government of the State.
The association in the statement claimed that the incident occurred on Wednesday the 13th of April, 2022 in the morning when the children were coming back from where they had gone to fetch water from a motorized borehole within the Kurebe community.
But the state government in a statement in Minna on Friday by the Commissioner for local government and internal security, Emmanuel Umar, said there is no single civilian in Kurebe community for some times now due to the activities of the gunmen, and wondered which civilians were killed by airstrikes.
According to the statement “To the best knowledge of the state government, there are no civilians residence in these areas for sometimes now due to the infiltrations and activities of the terrorists which forced the locals to seek shelter as IDPs in other parts of the state”.
The Niger State Government said it welcomes the ongoing military operations in neighboring states and in some local government areas of the state which includes Shiroro, Munya and other local government areas, aimed at neutralizing the bandits/terrorist in these environments, these operations both on the air and on the ground are being carried out professionally without any civilian casualties
The statement added that “the efforts of the joint operations have yielded a lot of success which the state is happy as many bandits/terrorist have already been eliminated in the affected local government areas.
“Similarly, as part of joints efforts by the State Government and security agencies in the state, a number of bandits attacks have been repelled in communities in Shiroro and Munya local government areas with a number of Kidnapped victims rescued”.
