Let me use today to remember a great man & military officer per excellence, one who may still be alive but already forgotten by the country he serves or served with blood & sweat.

1. On 11 September 2014, a NAF Alpha jet with tail number 466 crashed in Kauri.

2. Conducting an air interdiction were two fighter pilots on board the jet - Wing Commander Chimda Hedima and Group Captain Abdulrasheed Braimoh.
3. Boko Haram later released a video of an injured Wing Commander C Hedima on his knees. Before the officer was beheaded, he mentioned that he had not seen his co-pilot Group Captain Braimoh. In the gory clip, Hedima was killed.
4. Refusing to mention whether there was a search mission for the pilots, the military denied the Boko Haram video and even claimed Hedima was not the man in the clip. Spokesman, Air Commodore Alonge said clearly, 'The man in the video is not our pilot'.
5. It was a painful story to follow, for a killing that was glaring to be denied. The military would later accept that the officer was indeed killed by Boko Haram and even invite his wife for an AFN Remembrance Day. But it has remained silent on Group Captain Braimoh.
6. Different HUMINT sources have claimed that Braimoh as at 2016 had become a resource person for Shekau, advising him on tactics and especially on how to evade aircraft movements. These claims have not been verified but sound realistic.
7. What is however almost verified is that he was alive as at 2016. Multiple people that had escaped from BH dens have given descriptions that fit the officer. Nothing fresh has been heard about this officer since then.
8. And atypical of Boko Haram, they had not shot a video, showing him.
9. It looks like the senior officer has been abandoned to his fate. For a man trained with valuable national resources within & outside the country, Nigeria could do more to rescue or know where Braimoh is.
10. During negotiations for the release of the Chibok girls, Dapchi girls, the University of Maiduguri geologists & policemen, we had a fine opportunity to also demand from Shekau the whereabout of this officer.
11. America and Isreal have had to trade a greater number of imprisoned terrorists for fewer of their military officers. That is how valuable an officer and one who has attained that rank could be.
12. If Group Captain Braimoh was with us today, he would have been an Air Commodore and probably still leading campaigns for Nigeria. I have a strong belief he is still alive and I'll still be on the look out for him.

Remembering & Finding Group Captain A Braimoh.

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