Air Chief: Major operation to be launched in South South by Air Force

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has said that the Nigerian Air Force would soon launch an aerial operation to protect critical infrastructure and the people of the South South.

Abubakar said that having substantially addressed the security situation in the North East, the main focus focus of the NAF was to prevent the destruction of the nation’s infrastructure.

The Air Chief made the comment at the quarterly route march for personnel of the NAF in Abuja on Saturday.

He challenged the officers and men of the service to be ready at all time to respond effectively to the task of defending the territorial integrity of the country.

He said, “Be ready that at any time you are called to serve in the defence of the Nigerian state; you will be willing to do so out there and do it with every sense of patriotism.

“The challenges in the North East have been substantially addressed, so we are not too worried now about the North East.

“Our main focus will now be to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria in the South South and to ensure that oil and gas infrastructure are not destroyed by any group or group of individuals.

“Very soon we will launch an exercise in the South South also and the aim of the exercise is to protect our people and to protect the infrastructure of Nigeria.”

He explained that the route march was organised to give the leadership of the service the opportunity to have an appraisal of the tasks given to younger officers.

Abubakar said that the service was keen on a perfect state of health for its personnel as the current security challenges facing the country required the best form of health and physical well-being to tackle.

Meanwhile, the NAF has launched aerial patrol of the FCT, the Abuja-Kaduna High Way, Birnin Gwari-Kaduna High Way, the Falgore Forest area, Minna general area and the Kano-‎Kaduna High Way on Saturday.