•Says footage shows criminals sufficiently displaced
THE Air Force, on Monday, said the aerial bombardment it commenced last week in Lagos and Ogun communities will continue until the criminals are totally dislodged.The raid, which commenced on Thursday, continued on Monday.
The latest air strike was in continuation of the aerial bombardment commenced by the Air Force to rid the affected areas of pipeline vandals and other criminal elements.
Director of Air Force Public Relations, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, in a statement in Abuja, on Monday night, said the ongoing air operation was aimed at providing air support for the Joint Task Force recently set-up by the Defence Headquarters to dislodge pipeline vandals in the South-West, in an operation codenamed “Operation Awatse.”
According to him, there were strong indications based on analysis of the enclosed footage on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as strike and battle damage assessment (BDA) missions undertaken by NAF aircraft that the vandals had been sufficiently displaced from their current locations at Arepo, while their criminal activities had also been disrupted.
He said NAF was intensifying its ongoing air operations day and night to neutralise the remnants of the vandals who might have relocated deep inside the Mangrove forest.