NAF restates commitment to protect nation’s territorial integrity

The Nigerian Air Force on Wednesday restated its commitment to protect the nation’s territorial integrity.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar gave the commitment at the end of a Counter-Terrorism Simulation exercise at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Abubakar noted that currently the whole world was grappling with terrorism, adding that the quick response forces that participated in the exercise were trained by the air force.

He said that it was desire of the air force to have effective force at the airports to tackle any security issues that might arise.

“You can have all the training and capability, unless you are tested from time to time, you may not be able to know whether there are gaps.

“The whole essence of this exercise is to ensure that there are no gaps that exist at all for your enemies to take advantage of,’’ he said.

Abubakar stressed the need for all security agencies to work together in order to achieve success.

“We must coordinate with other security agencies and such exercise must be evaluated from time to time to know whether there will be problems in real situations or not.

“I am very satisfied with what I have seen this morning and appreciate the efforts of the airport officials and all other agencies like the Nigerian Navy, Customs Service among others.

“With these agencies on board, we will be able to deal with the any security situation should they arise,’’ he said.

Abubakar promised to replicate the exercise in all other airports across the country, adding “we have enough special forces trained to undertake this kind of operations.’’

“We are not doing this because we are anticipating anything but you have to evaluate from time to time to be ready for any anything.

“We have deployments in most of our airports right now and if there is anything, we will quickly mobilise them,’’ he said.