Published 26th Mar, 2022

Men of the Nigerian Army have discovered the debris of Alpha Jet NAF475 which went off the radar in March 2021.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the force headquarters released an image of the destroyed jet.

“Troops of Operation Desert Sanity on a clearance patrol in Sambisa Forest, Borno State, have uncovered the wreckage of crashed Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar with 2 crew members on 31 March 2021,” the post reads.

FIJ had reported how the aircraft went missing after losing radar contact with an air force base in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

Two days after, the Boko Haram Insurgent group said it bombed the jet housing two pilots: John Abolarinwa and Ebiakpo Chapele.

But Edward Gabkwet, the Nigerian Airforce (NAF) spokesperson, refuted the insurgents’ claim.

“It is obvious that the Boko Haram sect, in its characteristic manner of employing false propaganda, is seeking to claim credit for what was obviously an air accident that could have been caused by several other reasons, particularly at a time when the capability of the group to inflict mayhem has been significantly degraded by the Armed Forces of Nigeria,” Gabkwet said.

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