Military will not use heavy power attacks to free abducted school girls – Badeh

The Chief of Defence State, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, has said the military was avoiding the use of heavy power attacks on the abductors of school girls in Chibok, Borno State for the sake of the girls’ safety.
Badeh made the remark when the Board and Management of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency paid a visit to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
The CDS assured the Board that the military would soon free the school girls from their abductors.
He condemned the activities of the insurgents in the North, adding: “What is happening in the northern Nigeria is pure madness.
“It is not the number of those abducted that is the issue but the attendant psychological trauma of every parent.
“We were given information about where they are.
“We cannot use heavy power attack because we will kill the school girls but I assure you that we will free them.”
Badeh said the military would continue to support NOSDRA to combat illicit oil exploration in the country, adding that the military was not meant to fight only war.
“If we can employ the navy to clean the environment, it will go a long way in sustaining the environment,” he said.
He said the effect of oil spill on the environment and the health of the people was of concern to everybody.
Badeh said the burning of crude oil by those operating illegal oil refineries was hazardous to the environment.
Earlier, retired Major Lancelot Anyanya, the Chairman of the board of NOSDRA, said the visit was to express the agency’s commitment to partner with the armed forces on ways to protect the environment.
Anyanya said that vandalism in the oil communities had caused damage to the ecosystem.
According to him, oil production is the nexus of our economy, but the process has produced negative impact on the life of the people and the environment.
Anyanya appealed to the international oil exploring communities to do what was right by giving a premium of respect to Nigerians and their environment.
The girls were kidnapped from their school on April 14 by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram sect.