A new footage released by the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram and obtained by AP, showed the beheading of a man believed to be one of the pilots of the Nigerian Air Force jet which went missing and later crashed earlier on September 11 after it left Yola, capital of Adamawa State, for a bombing campaign against the militants.
The video shows a man decked in a camouflage vest kneeling while an axe-wielding fighter stands menacingly next to him before eventually chopping off his head. Moments before the gruesome execution, the victim who spoke in English and identified himself as a wing commander in the Nigerian Air Force, revealed that they were undertaking a mission in the Kauri area of Borno State on September 11 when the plane suddenly crashed to the ground.
“We were shot down and our aircraft crashed. To this day I don’t know the whereabouts of my second pilot,” he said.
The Nigerian army, however, has dispelled rumours the executed man was the missing pilot. When asked directly about whether the man was an air force pilot, as claimed, spokesman Air Commodore Dele Alonge told AFP:
“The man shown in the Boko Haram video is not our officer.The picture of a man beheaded in the video is superimposed,” he said without elaborating. “Our plane is still missing and we are looking for it. Boko Haram is just making unfounded claims.”