The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria Air Force

  • Presidential aircraft only gulping £1,000, says Presidency

    Presidential aircraft only gulping £1,000, says Presidency

    The Presidency on Thursday denied the media reports claiming that President Muhammadu Buhari’s aircraft in London was gulping £4,000 daily.

    Buhari had left Nigeria on May 7th for consultation with his doctors in the United Kingdom.

    A statement by the Senior Special Adviser on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the aircraft is gulping less than £1,000 daily.

    The statement reads “The Presidency is constrained to decry criticisms, mostly on social media, on the retention in London of the Presidential Aircraft, NAF 001 as mostly informed by lack of understanding of protocol around foreign trips by Heads of State all over the world.

    “It is important to state that for reasons of protocol, national security, diplomacy and prestige, there is no world leader who travels abroad and is left without plans for immediate return or possible evacuation.

    “From operational point of view, this country’s Armed Forces as represented by the Nigeria Air Force are not to abandon their Commander-In-Chief in whichever circumstance he is. This is a standard operating procedure.

    “We have also read claims about outrageous fees allegedly paid by Nigeria. The published amounts are totally untrue. Aircraft conveying heads of state all over the world usually enjoy waivers even where payments for parking are differentiated by aircraft categories.

    “We been assured that where the waiver is not granted, payment will not exceed £1,000, which is a quarter of the amount being peddled.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, this President is not the first to have a presidential aircraft standing by for him, as he will certainly not be the last.  All past Heads of this country have had this privilege, and the part that surprises the most is that leaders who in the past travelled with three Nigerian aircraft did not suffer this trenchant criticism.

    “We appeal to Nigerians to ignore opposition campaign aimed at derailing this administration’s big plans for the country.

    “This is a government that is constructing the Second Niger Bridge, the Mambila Power Plant, the East-West and the North-South standard gauge railway lines.

    “We are a government that has saved this country an annual loss of two trillion Naira from fraudulent petroleum subsidy schemes by influential citizens and their children, and rid the public service of about 50,000 ghost workers.

    “The Buhari administration certainly deserves a chance,” it stated.

  • Air Force chiefs meet to restrategise on war against insurgency

    Air Force chiefs meet to restrategise on war against insurgency

    Amidst successes recorded in the fight against insurgency in the country, Nigeria Air Force commanders are meeting in Kaduna to review strategies ahead of new challenges during the year.

    The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar said while opening the meeting on Wednesday that the Nigerian Air Force would continue to add value to the fight against all forms of security challenges in the country.

    He told the commanders that the air personnel have made very significant contributions to the successes recorded in the war against insurgency across the country.

    Abubakar said the meeting was to review what tranpared in the first and second quarter and make suggestions on ways to enhance the professional efficiency of the service.

    The Chief of Air Staff stressed that the meeting was to appraise the activities of the air force in terms of operations, logistics and other activities, so as to articulates a road map for the second quarter.

    “Since the beginning of the year, we have substantially achieved much, but we still have to do more.

    “Our desire is to continue to carry out our functions professionally and ensure we return its integrity and Nigeria is not undermined by anybody or group of individuals.

    “The Nigeria Air Force has played substantial role and we will continue to play that role more importantly in the South South.”

    He commended the governments of Zamfara, Imo and Osun for their tremendous support to the air force.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abubakar also inaugurated the control tower of 401 Flight Unit.

    According to him, the control tower will add value to what is already on ground at the base.

    He described the facility as a very important infrastructure to flying activities of the military in Kaduna area.

    “What we have here now is a better equipment, stress-free compared to what was there before.

    “We believe that what we have here is going to add value to what we are doing in terms of training and air traffic control,” he said.

  • WAEC loses 10 computers to fire in Kaduna

    WAEC loses 10 computers to fire in Kaduna

    The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), says it lost 10 computers holding vital records and information about all schools in the zone when fire gutted part of its office in Kaduna on Tuesday morning.

    The Zonal Coordinator of WAEC in Kaduna, Fedelis Gaiya, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Kaduna on Tuesday that the fire which occurred at about 9. 50 a.m. probably started from an electrical spark or fault.

    “We are running on generator. When   they restored electricity, we saw smoke all over the place.

    “We are grateful that no life was lost because most of our staff members were out to their various examination centres.’’

    He, however, said that the incident will not affect the ongoing examination because the question papers were safe.

    He commended the Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Air Force, State University and State Fire Service for responding fast to the situation.

    “We are grateful to all the fire service departments that responded very fast to the situation. Otherwise, the damage would have been more than this.’’

    Deputy Controller of Federal Fire Service, Thompson Mohammed, reiterated the need for fire extinguishers to be installed in offices to reduce the rate of damages caused by fire.

    “I am sure if there were fire extinguishers here with trained men, the damage would have been minimal.’’

    He urged them to liaise with the service to train their staff on how to operate fire extinguishers, adding that “it is committed to discharging its duties effectively and promptly.’’

  • NAF kills top Boko Haram fighters

    Nigeria’s Air Force said on Tuesday it had killed several senior Boko Haram fighters and possibly their overall leader.

    Government planes attacked the group inside the Sambisa forest in its northeast heartland on Friday, the air force said, adding that it had only just confirmed details of the impact of the raid.

    “Their leader, so called ‘Abubakar Shekau,’ is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders,” Reuters quoted the military spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, as saying in a statement.

    There was no immediate reaction from Boko Haram, which communicates with the media only by videos.

    The military has reported the death of Boko Haram’s Shekau in the past, only to have a man purporting to be him appearing later, apparently unharmed, making video statements.

  • Chibok girls: NAF raids Boko Haram hideouts

    The military in Maiduguri, Borno State, said on Saturday that more air strikes have been launched on Boko Haram targets and locations by the Air Component team of Operation Lafiya Dole as part of efforts to locate the Chibok girls and by extension wipe out the insurgents.

    The Deputy Theatre Commander (Air), Operation Lafiya Dole, Air Vice Marshal Isiaka Oladayo Amao, said this at a press briefing held at the media centre of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri, Borno State.

    The briefing, according to Air Vice Marshal Amao, was to keep the public abreast of recent operations conducted by military in some parts of Borno State.

    He said, “In continuation of the counter insurgency, the Air Component in the last one month conducted 286 operational sorties against terrorists’ targets from December  25 to date in the Sambisa Forest covering an area of 157,000km2 which is equivalent to the total land mass of South Korea, Portugal and Togo.

    “A total of 536 hours 21 minutes were flown by various platforms engaged in the operations, translating into 316,637.5 litres of aviation fuel which amounts to N60.3 million, excluding the cost of maintenance and armament expended.”

    One of the missions, according t him, was an airstrike on December 25 last year  that hit some  terrorists’ leaders and junior commanders that converged for a leadership meeting in Sambisa Forest apparently to plan an attack, but  were neutralized by a precision strike that killed several terrorists.

    Another milestone in the military mission, Amao said, was conducted on January 17 following intelligence report on the location of a “high value terrorists’ leader” at South of Arra village in the Sambisa Forest.

     

  • Air Force helicopter in emergency landing in Rivers

    A Nigerian Air Force Mi-24B helicopter on a training exercise made an emergency landing on Thursday at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Port Harcourt.

    This is contained in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja signed by Group Capt. Dele Alonge, Deputy Director, Air Force Public Relations and Information.

    The statement said there was no casualty recorded as all the crew members came out unhurt.

    It said that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, on receipt of the report, had immediately constituted a team of experts to unravel the circumstances that led to the accident.

    The statement said that further details of the emergency landing would be made known as investigations revealed.

    The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that a Nigerian Airforce Alpha jet crashed on May 6 in Niamey in Niger Republic killing the two pilots on board.

    The jet was, however, not on a combatant mission.