NAN-DS-8
Commitment
Abuja, Nov. 16, 2016 (NAN) The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Wednesday restated its commitment to protecting the territorial integrity of the country against any form of aggression.
The Chief of Air Staff (CAF), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said this at the Service 2016 Operations Seminar at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja.
The seminar had as theme: “Developing Effective Airpower Responses to National Security Challenges in Nigeria.’’
Abubakar noted that the country had been in the eye of the storm the due to activities of the insurgents and militant groups as well as the threat to the well-being of citizens.
The airforce chief said that the subversive of the groups were appearing to pose as challenges to the political stability of the country and the desire to become a prosperous nation.
This, he said, called for more commitment to the protection of the nation’s territorial integrity for the peaceful co-existence of all.
“Since the advent of this administration, we have critically looked at every aspects of our air operations,’’ he said.
He said the airforce had assessed its coordination with land forces, logistics support, platform reactivation efforts and welfare of personnel.
Abubakar said the airforce had identified the critical role of training and retraining, reactivation of platforms, developing capacity in force protection and enhancement of personnel morale through the provision of decent shelter for all.
He said the airforce was winning the hearts and minds of host communities where military action was taking place, describing this as essential ingredients for success.
Abubakar said further that in order to ensure optimal performance, the service had over 700 personnel of different specialties in several parts of the world in the last 18 months.
“Today we have Flying Officers as Captains, Co-pilots, Flight Engineers and IPs on the C-130.
“We have 40 pilots training in different parts of the world while 27 are training in the country,’’ he said.
According to him, the airforce had expanded the infrastructure in its training school to accommodate 2,500 recruits at a time as against the 500 recruits in the past.
Abubakar explained that the efforts were necessitated by the expanded role the airforce was playing in the counter-insurgency operations in different parts of the country.
He added that to deal with the country’s increasing internal security challenges, four new Regiment Groups under the SOC located in Gusau, Owerri, Bauchi and Ipetu Ijesa would soon take-off.
“We have also established NAF AWC in Makurdi to build the capacity in understanding air operations.
“NAF has also brought in 14 additional aircraft that were grounded for one maintenance reason or the other into flying status,’’ he said.
Abubakar said that NAF had trained 325 personnel as Special Forces personnel on skills such as anti-hijacking and counter-terrorism.
He, however, urged the participants to avail themselves of the knowledge acquired from the seminar to improve on their performances and the service generally.
In his remarks, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, expressed delight to be part of the NAF family.
The CDS was represented by the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Ibok-Ete Ibas.
Olonisakin commended the Chief of Air Staff for his outstanding performance so far, especially in the area of security and service assistance in the fight against terrorism in the North-East.
“The peculiarity of NAF operational space in terms of its ubiquity makes it an indispensable party to any military operations.
“As such, the role of NAF toward the overall development of any nation, particularly in safeguarding the nation’s territorial integrity cannot be overemphasised,’’ he said.
The CDS added that adopting this theme demonstrated clearly not only the desire of NAF to be more decisive, but also confirmed the zeal with which it intended to meet its responsibility.
Olonisakin urged the participants to seize the opportunity to improve their current operational strategies. (NAN)
YI/OJO
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(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)