By Ismail Auwal
The presidency has stated that it has yet to deploy the acquired Tucano jet to combat banditry in North West in order to comply with the terms of the aircraft purchase agreement.
Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman, while featuring on Trust TV said that failure to comply with terms will result in Nigeria being listed in the US’s “black book.”
Shehu said that the military should be allowed to use their methodical process for dealing with these things.
He said that ” The president is responsible. If he finishes now, we want him to go and rest in Kaduna or Daura, we don’t want him to go to the International Criminal Court.”
“When you are dealing with countries like America, you have to be sensitive to public opinion which is important to them as it is to us. “
The presidential spokesperson asserted the law does not allow you to use weapons on targets they classify as civilians otherwise America will no longer sell weapons to you.
“It is true that from the beginning, the Air Force could not use the aircraft in the North West and even after that, it took some time because these things also use precision type weapon. From my own understanding, these were not to be made available until March, we are just into April.”
On what the government is doing to rescue to the abducted Abuja-Kaduna train passengers, Shehu noted that the military has the capacity to bomb the enclave of the bandits if it wishes, but the determination to rescue them alive is preventing the government from engaging in any military actions.
He said the government was also making heavy investments in drone technology, stating that “quite a lot is being achieved with the drones.”
He said the Abuja-Kaduna train service was ready for resumption after the recent attack, “but with air protection by the Nigerian Air Force pending the time when the appropriate technology is acquired for the rail.”
He said the train operations were suspended in order not to be insensitive to the families of the victims.
