Nigerian Air Force announces operational units in Benue, 2 other states over herdsmen-farmers’ clashes

macfranc007 February 09, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Eromosele Ebhomele

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has announced plans by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to establish a Forward Operational Base (FOB) in Taraba state to further tackle the incessant herdsmen-farmers clash in the country.

Abubakar disclosed the plans while delivering a lecture to participants of National Defence College (NDC) Course 26 in Abuja adding that there were plans to establish a ‘Quick Response Wing’ along the Benue-Nassarawa axis.

Air Marshal Abubakar also spoke on the current and likely threats as well as contingencies from the perspective of air operations.

He then elucidated on his vision for the NAF while also highlighting current efforts at actualizing it.

Some of the initiatives, according to an official statement obtained by NAIJ.com, included the establishment of new commands and some units, improvement in human capacity development, improved aircraft serviceability and logistics support as well as enhanced personnel welfare.

The statement said the CAS spoke about the efforts being made in the area of research and development towards improved self-sufficiency, as a result of which the NAF is currently making great savings in foreign exchange.

He equally examined the challenges and constraints to the NAF’s air power effectiveness discussed the strategies to countering them.

In his remarks, the commandant of NDC, Rear Admiral Adeniyi Osinowo, declared that “You cannot win any war today without an effective and virile air force.”

He commended the current NAF leadership for taking a lot of laudable and unprecedented steps, especially in the area of technological development, in a bid to reposition the security organisation for greatness.

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He particularly cited the recent feats by the NAF in locally designing and producing an operational unmanned aerial vehicle, among many other breakthroughs in the area of research and development.

NAIJ.com earlier reported how men of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) have successfully airlifted hostages of Boko Haram after they were rescued from the Sambisa forest where they have been kept for many months, as the security body registered a major victory against the terrorists.

Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Air Force, said the rescued hostages also got medical treatments from the officers.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV