The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Airforce

  • Air Force, Navy in joint operation against maritime crimes

    Air Force, Navy in joint operation against maritime crimes

    The Nigerian Air Force and the Navy have moved against criminal activities in the nation’s waterways through a joint operation, code named Saukan Mikiya.

    A statement on Sunday by the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Air Force, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said the two services collaborated to fish out criminals operating anywhere in the maritime domain.

    The statement cited crude and pipeline vandalism as major focus of the joint operation.

    The exercise was informed by the unprecedented environmental damage, loss of lives and revenue to the country which the operation sought to eradicate.

    “The illegal activities, which include crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism that often result in environmental pollution, loss of lives/property and huge losses in accruable revenue to the Federal Government of Nigeria, would soon become a thing of the past”, the statement said.

    The statement added that the operation held from Thursday to Friday around Port Harcourt, Brass River, Bonny River and seawards up to the Exclusive Economic Zone.

    It explained that the Navy deployed some boats in strategic locations to monitor and block suspicious vessels along the creeks and the high sea while the NAF deployed its ATR 42 maritime patrol aircraft for the exercise.

    The statement added that the NNS Okpabanna was deployed as the air control ship for the operation, stressing that the operation was aimed at ensuring enhanced security in the nation’s maritime domain through effective utilisation of the capabilities of the Air Force and the Navy.

  • Boko Haram: Airforce can detect unauthorised aircraft, says CAS

    Boko Haram: Airforce can detect unauthorised aircraft, says CAS

    The Nigerian Airforce has discarded speculations that the extremist sect Boko Haram was engaging in air attacks in the North East and using aircrafts to ship in its weapons.

    Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosu who debunked the rumour noted that the Airforce has technology that detects any unauthorised aircraft in the nation’s airspace.

    Amosu was in Lagos for the 2014 Airforce Logistics Seminar, which held at the Sam Ethnam Airforce Base, Ikeja.

    Insisting that the allegations were untrue, he stated that the force will definitely bring down any unauthorised aircraft observed in the nation’s airspace.

    The Nigerian Air Force is and would always be in control of the nation’s airspace, said Amosu, just as he revealed that with the sophisticated equipment acquired, and collaborating efforts from sister agencies, the military was ready to fight the insurgents to standstill.

    However, Amosu said the military was not completely dismissing the rumour as every information is treated with the required urgency be it rumour or not. “We have technology that can detect any unauthorised aircraft that flies over our airspace. If we observe such aircraft we will definitely bring them down.

    “We are worried equally and we are monitoring, but like I said, somebody may see the Nigerian Airforce aircraft and believe that it belongs to Boko Haram.

    However, one thing is sure, they are getting their supplies, but it might not be by air. They have built up the Manbisa Forest for a very long time, how are we sure that they did not have sufficient supply in stock before the attacks started?

    “As a tactician, one also has to be sure that one has to constantly examine tactics and approach and that is what this seminar intends to achieve. When the logistics is not enough it becomes a problem.

    “When you commit your forces to operation, one of the things we do as leaders is to constantly visit to boost their morale, we have to check to ensure that the tactics employed is still relevant.

    “We have to be sure that you are still going to be effective,” said Amosu.

    Tagged “enhancing effective logistics support for air operations in Nigerian Air Force through innovative technology,” the seminar had in attendance former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Oluseye Petinrin; chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Air Force, Kenneth Achibong; a committee member, Deji Jakande; the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence as well as the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade.

    In his remark, Petinrin advised the armed forces to seek for those with knowledge of how to handle their equipment.

    “The real problem is knowledge and not equipment. It is when you have knowledge of particular equipment that one can handle such equipment. The shrinking manpower in the air force caused by retirement of qualified personnel is worrisome,” he said.

  • Air Force, community disagree in Makurdi over land

    There is tension at Akpen, a Makurdi suburb that is the host community of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Tactical Air Command (TAC).

    A few days ago,  personnel marked over 150,000 houses in the community for demolition and threatened to eject the occupants.

    They are claiming that the land belongs to them, but the residents told The Nation that they had been occupying the land since 1970 and that the NAF base was built in 1973.

    When our reporter visited the community, which is located on the Makurdi-Gboko Road, youths, women and men gathered in groups, preparing for a showdown with “anyone who would ask us to vacate our land”.

    A businessman, who built a filling station at Akpen, Dr. Paul Ubwa, told The Nation that he was given the land by a chief in the area, and there was a demarcation between NAF’s land and the host community’s.

    He alleged that Air Force men, a few days ago, stormed the community with guns and harassed women and children.

    Ubwa urged the Benue State Government to instruct the commander of the Base Service Group to restrain his men from further harassing innocent people who they are supposed to protect.

    The community leader, Chief Clement Chia, alleged that three of the youths had been whisked away to the NAF Base.

    He recalled that the youths were cleaning St. Francis Church, Akpen premises when Air Force men stormed the place, bundled them into their van, took them to their base where they tortured them by inflicting injuries on their bodies.

    The chairman of the Church Council, Gabriel Ator, said St. Francis Parish covers 2.6 hectares and the worshippers have been under intimidation and harassment by Air Force men, who had mounted a roadblock opposite the church.

    NAF Tactical Air Command spokesman, Squadron Leader Obi Obasi, told our reporter that he was not aware of the incident and declined to comment on the matter.