The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, has explained that a helicopter gunship was deployed by the Nigerian Air Force in Gombe during the #EndBadGovernance protest in a bid to ensure that things didn’t go terribly awry after the marches were “hijacked by unscrupulous elements.”
In a statement on Saturday by the Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF, AVM Edward Gabkwet, after a meeting with Gombe Governor Inuwa Yahaya, Abubakar said deploying the aircraft was necessary given the urgency of deploying additional security measures to protect peaceful protesters and public property from being vandalized.
According to the statement, given “the wanton destruction of lives and property” during the recent protest in the State, due largely to its hijack by “unscrupulous elements,”Air Marshal Abubakar insisted that the need for additional security measures became necessary.
“This situation, according to him, led to the NAF deploying an aircraft for reconnaissance over the metropolis and other parts of the State, while Regiment Forces joined other security services in quelling the unrest,” Gabkwet said.
