We must defeat insurgency in North East now, Air Force chief vows

IGP deploys fresh 200 officers to tackle banditry in Kaduna
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshall Sadique Baba Abubakar, has restated the commitment of the Nigerian Air force (NAF) to urgently cripple the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North East through consistent aerial bombardments of their remnants.

Speaking during the groundbreaking of the headquarters of the Ground Training Command (GTC) of the force in Enugu, Abubakar noted that NAF was consistently conducting surveillance missions in the North East, especially areas to attacks by the group.

He stated that the operation was already yielding results, as several strongholds of the sect had been deserted, adding that the exercise had also led to the liberation of persons abducted by the insurgents since the inception of the current administration of the country.

Abubakar disclosed that two new commands, Air Training Command with headquarters in Kaduna, and Ground Training Command, headquartered in Enugu, have been established.

His words: “This has brought the total number of commands in NAF to six. The GTC is responsible for the implementation of local training policies for the force. The NAF, recently through one of the schools under this command, graduated a record number of 1,544 recruits and 195 DSSC officers. This was made possible by the recent expansion of the training facilities at the MTC to train up to 2,500 recruits at a time as against the initial capacity of 500.

“Consequently, the NAF has successfully trained about 7,500 recruits along with 400 DSSC officers between July 2015 and today. This shows that we have not relented in the area of capacity building, as we have embarked on an extensive training of our personnel across all specialties.”

He said the ground commanding training complex, when completed, would compliment the operations of the force.

The Ground Commanding Officer, Vice Air Marshal Samson Akpasha, said the complex was one of the six training commands established to implement local ground and technical training policies of the force.

He disclosed that the command had trained over 1000 regiment personnel, including 450 special force officers, with battlefield action and extraction capacity within one year to boost the anti-terrorism fight of the Federal Government.

Akpasha added that the Air Force had transformed into a highly professional and disciplined organisation through capacity building for efficiency and timely response to the insecurity in the land.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the immediate deployment of fresh 200 policemen in Birnin-Gwari Local Council of Kaduna State to flush out armed bandits in the area.

He made disclosure yesterday during a town hall meeting with stakeholders from the axis.

The IGP also revealed that an area command would be created in the community along with two additional divisional police stations and 10 patrol vehicles for an improved security of lives and property.

The police boss said the move was to curtail the security challenges bedeviling the council.