The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (Rtd), has explained why no physical remains of terrorists were recovered following recent United States airstrikes in Nigeria, attributing it to the advanced nature of the weapons deployed.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme on Thursday, Musa said the terrorists were neutralised using sophisticated weapons, including Tomahawk missiles, which left no visible traces at the strike locations.
According to him, the destructive capacity of the weapons made it impossible to recover physical remains.
“They wouldn’t know, because the way they were neutralised, you wouldn’t see anything. It’s a new kind of weapon that was used, the Tomahawks,” the defence minister said.
Reacting to reports suggesting that some of the missiles failed to explode, Musa dismissed such claims, describing them as part of military tactics.
“That is all part of the tactics. In conflict attack, you deceive your enemy. Those are all part of it,” he stated.
Musa assured Nigerians that the military operations had recorded significant successes and that more results would become evident in the coming days.
“At least Nigerians are seeing the results, and they will see more things coming ahead,” he added.
He further revealed that while the U.S.-led operation was ongoing, Nigerian security forces were simultaneously carrying out coordinated offensives against other terrorist targets across the country.
According to him, the Nigerian Air Force, Navy and Army have made notable gains in their operations since January.
“As we speak, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy and the Army were also neutralising a lot of other areas. In fact, from within January, a lot has been achieved,” Musa said.