The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has said the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has recruited over 4,900 persons, out of which 1,900 had completed training as airmen/airwomen and deployed to various units, even as it said it had commenced operation Ruwan Wata in the Northeast.
A statement signed by NAF’s spokesman, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, in Abuja, yesterday said Abubakar disclosed this at this year’s 3rd quarter meeting with Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding (AOCs) and Commanders of various NAF units.
He also said over 1,500 are undergoing training, with another 1,500 scheduled to commence training afterwards, adding that 406 have been enlisted into the service, out of which 206 have been commissioned as Direct Short Service officers, while 200 would commence cadet training on September 16.
According to him, the operation was aimed at further degrading the capability of the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists and routing out criminal elements in the Northeast from their hideouts.
Abubakar stated that so much had happened in the NAF in the preceding three months, noting that reports from units indicated that the NAF was making substantial progress in the discharge of its constitutional responsibilities, stressing that the NAF projected airpower beyond Nigeria’s territory within the same period through its C-130H aircraft that was used to deliver relief materials to victims of the mudslide in Sierra Leone.
