Air Force can't locate Dapchi girls after flying for 200 hours - Nigerian Govt.

Nigeria government says the Air Force assets deployed to search for the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi town, Yobe State, on Monday, February, 19, could not find the girls after flying for 200 hours and engaging its various intelligence platforms.

The Nigerian presidency announced this in a series of tweets.

The Presidency through its Twitter handle, @NGRPresident said, “Today Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar @CAS_AMSadique relocated to Yobe State to personally superintend the search for the missing Dapchi girls.” 

“The @NigAirForce had earlier deployed more platforms to the N/East, as security agencies ramp up efforts to locate & rescue the girls.” 

“As at 6pm on Monday February 26, 2018, the @NigAirForce had flown a total of 200 hours conducting searches for the missing Dapchi girls.”

Earlier in the week, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in a statement released some phone numbers, calling on the public, especially the locals, who might have any useful information that could lead to the location of the girls to contact them.

Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, Director of Public Relations and Information (NAF) in the statement said:

“The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed additional air assets, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, to the Northeast in a renewed effort at locating the missing Dapchi girls. 

“Before now, following confirmation of reports that some of the girls were yet to be accounted for, the NAF had deployed some ISR platforms and helicopters to search for and possibly locate the missing girls as well as the rogue Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs). 

“Although these search operations were conducted in a covert manner, for obvious reasons, the efforts did not yield the desired results. 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.

“While the NAF will spare no efforts at possibly locating the girls via its air operations, it also seizes this opportunity to call on anyone, especially the locals, who might have any useful information that could lead to the location of the girls to bring such information forward to NAF authorities through any of the following GSM numbers: 08122557720, 08035733438, 08172843484 or 08058419128. Such useful information could also be forwarded to other relevant security agencies.”