New equipment have arrived for the Air Force to fight Boko Haram, it was learnt yesterday.
Its personnel are to be trained in Lagos before being sent to the troubled Northeast which the military says it will make safe in six weeks.
Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Olusola Amosu broke the news at the National Air Defence Corps (NADC), Lagos.
Air Marshal Amosu, who kicked off the operation, said there would be gun fires and movement of military equipment day and night, urging Lagosians not to panic.
He noted that Lagos is an ideal environment for the military to conduct the exercise, adding that other exercises have been carried out in Yola.
He said:”As part of ongoing operations in the northeast, we needed to show up in Lagos to bring additional capabilities in the fight against insurgency. We are incorporating some new systems. Some new ammunition have shown up and we need to incorporate this into our existing platforms and intensify day and night operations.
“We need to let the citizens know that, occasionally, they will hear gun fires and we will have ammunition being delivered; they should not panic. We have been in the air for the past few days and we are notifying the citizens accordingly, that the ongoing operations are to recalibrate our weapons system and fine tune our tactics.
“It is going to be a combination of day and night operations. It is also another opportunity for us to look at the maritime environment and the challenges around that area.
“We captured all these because it is not only in the northeast that we have challenges. We equally have in the maritime sector and we are contributing to the Operation PoloShield in the Niger Delta and in some of these platforms here today, we have new ammunition that we need to test.
“The Owode Range here in Lagos is the most ideal for these operations and so we have to make use of the facility. Everything is being harnessed in terms of the land space, capability and manpower are brought to bear towards fighting insurgency and to take care of emerging threats across the country.
“We need the citizens to be aware so that they won’t panic and start believing any false information. We are here with the ground forces (Army and Navy) to ensure this operation is carried out successfully.
“We have carried out exercises in Yola and have tested weapons that ought to be tested around that area. But here is the ideal range for us. You will see arrays of platforms setup and we expect that within five days we will be done. But some of the platforms maybe ready between Sunday and Monday and as soon as they are ready, we move them straight to the northeast.”
Air Marshall Amosu expressed optimism that the six weeks granted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was adequate to enable the security agencies conclude their war against the terrorists just as he maintained that the nation was winning the war.
Although he admitted that fighting terrorism was a complex war, the Chief of Air Staff Amosu maintained that the terrorists have been destabilised and their communication disrupted.
“Fighting insurgency and terrorism is not an easy task. Based on the outline, particularly with the Air Force, we set out first to decimate the terrorists by gaining air and ground intelligence so as to deny the enemy freedom of action and movement, disrupt their communication and supply lines and deny them the possibility of regeneration.
“We have done this sufficiently. Their supply lines are heavily depleted; command and control already disrupted and so what we need now is an exercise to complete the project.
“It is so easy for people to say we couldn’t do it in many years and how do we claim we can in six weeks. Well naturally, most operations will come to an end. It will get to a point where you can categorically say that within a time frame you can do this. And that is where we are now.
“Do not forget that your military is a well trained military and we are aware of variables which are already there but we may not be able to disclose these variables we know that could prevent an operation from being completed within a given time.
The Airforce Chief said the postponement of the general elections was in order to maintain peace, noting that the military only advised INEC that took the final decision.
He also spoke on the multi-national joint operations in the northeast, just as he allayed fears of neighbouring countries encroaching on the nation’s territories.
Air Marshall Amosu said the military was concerned about the country’s porous borders but noted that steps were being taken by the authorised security agencies to improve the situation.
“If you noticed last week, some aircraft came down here for surveillance. We have captured and are still capturing whatever is happening in the maritime environment alongside activities in the northeast.”
