The military authorities has on Monday said terrorists did not attack the Kaduna Airport terminal as being speculated by the media.
This was made known when the Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan; Garrison Commander, 1 Division Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Brig.-Gen. Uriah Opuene; and Air Force Base Commander, Air Commodore Ademuyiwa Adedoyin, visited scene of the attack on Monday.
Brig-Gen. Opuene while briefing journalists said the incident happened six kilometers aways from the airport terminal outside the perimeter fence of the airport.
He further said that the terrorists were only passing behind the airport when the saw a security man working with NAMA and then shot at him in a bid to pass a message that they attacked the airport.
The army chief further stressed that there were different layers of security at the airport and there is no terrorists could have attacked the airport.
Opuene said, “As you can see, this place is about six kilometres away from the airport terminal. The bandits were only passing behind the airport perimeter fence when they saw the security man engaged by NAMA and they fired at him. They just took advantage of that to pass a message that they have attacked the airport.
There are several layers of security at the airport. This is the first layer and even this first layer was not breached because from the moment of hearing that shot, it took our men just about three minutes to get here from the next layer of security.
He said that about 12 bandits were killed when men of the airforce went after them.
On arrival, the bandits were already running away. So, we engaged them through the use of ground forces. Then we called for air strike and a helicopter was deployed and from the air report, about 12 of the bandits were killed.
“So, as you can see from the distance, the insinuation outside that the terrorists took over the airport is not correct. If the terrorists had entered, they would have met us there,” he added
On his part NAF Base Commander, Air Commodore Ademuyiwa Adedoyin, said security around the airport has been beefed up following the attack on the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA, last year.