Nigeria’s military has dismissed claims that a man beheaded by Boko Haram fighters in the group’s latest video was an air force pilot in a fighter jet that went missing three weeks ago.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had claimed in the footage that militants shot down the Alpha Jet and showed wreckage of an aircraft including the Nigerian Air Force’s green and white roundel.
A man wearing a camouflage print T-shirt and with a heavily bandaged hand in a sling was seen later kneeling in front of an unmasked Boko Haram fighter in combat fatigues.
He said in English that he was one of the pilots and appears to give his name, rank and date of birth but the video is inaudible.
He is killed after he finishes speaking.
Spokesman Air Commodore Dele Alonge, asked whether the man was an air force pilot, said: ‘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.
‘Our plane is still missing and we are looking for it. Boko Haram is just making unfounded claims.’
Nigeria’s military has been under pressure to reverse Boko Haram territorial gains in three northeast states in recent months, with reports that soldiers have fled militant attacks and complaints about a lack of adequate weapons.
According to one security analyst who tracks the conflict, the Alpha Jet sent a signal that it had been hit.
The two pilots’ families met air force officers in the days that followed and were told the jet had crashed.
The plane came down in the heart of rebel-held territory, making search and rescue impossible, he said.
In the video, Shekau is seen on the back of a pick-up truck firing a powerful anti-aircraft gun and boasting about other aircraft Boko Haram has shot down.