Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar has said about 300 Boko Haram members were killed by the Nigerian Air Force in a raid in Borno State.

Abubakar said this on Monday in Bama, while addressing men and officers of the Nigerian Air Force.

Abubakar, says the Nigerian Air Force has no intelligence on whether the Chibok girls are in Sambisa Forest or not.

Abubakar, who spoke during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, however, said the NAF was working round the clock to rescue the girls and other Nigerians abducted by Boko Haram.

The NAF chief also commented on the operation of the force in the South-South, saying the air force would not bomb Niger Delta.

He said the air force flew its planes daily with the hope of sighting the Chibok girls, adding that the military, like other Nigerians, was passionate about them.

He said about 50 per cent of the NAF flying missions in counter-insurgency operations were devoted to Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance.

According to him, the ISR is aimed at rescuing the Chibok girls and other Nigerians abducted by the sect.

He dismissed the latest Boko Haram video, where the sect displayed some girls, which it claimed were killed by military bombardment, as cheap propaganda.

Abubakar explained that there was no way bodies of people killed by bombardment could be intact as shown in the video.

He insisted that what was shown in the video could not have been something that happened after an air strike.

He said although there was no military operation without collateral damage, the air force was doing everything possible to determine legitimate targets.

The air force chief said Sambisa forest, which is about 60,000 square kilometres, was a difficult terrain, especially for the land forces.

He explained that equipment could get stuck in the forest during the rainy season.

He added that with what the air force had seen from its reconnaissance, it was difficult to say that the place was still occupied.

Abubakar said with the logistics base of the sect destroyed by the air force, it would be easier for land forces to move into the forest during the dry season.

He also disclosed that the air force would soon commence its operations in the South-South.

He stated that the air force would not bomb the Niger Delta, but would protect the people and facilities.

“We are not going to bomb the Niger Delta; we are going to protect the people and oil and gas infrastructure,” he stated.

He added that NAF had entered into partnership with 15 Nigerian universities and polytechnics, through which it had been producing spare parts to service grounded aircraft.