Ex-Air chief Sadique Abubakar, flies out of Air Force

The immediate past Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar (retd), on Tuesday flies out of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) after handing over the mantle of leadership to the new Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Oladayo Amao, last week.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday last week appointed the new Chief of the Air Staff alongside other Service chiefs and the Chief of Defence Staff. 

At a colourful ceremony held at the Nigerian Air Base, Abuja, attended by the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, and other government functionaries, Air Marshall Abubakar said during his tenure, which span five and half years, he was able to restructure and reposition the Nigerian Air Force into a highly professional and disciplined force.

He said the current structure would add a lot of value to the efforts of the Nigerian at securing Nigeria and the citizenry, adding that 15 aircrafts and 8 unmanned combat aerial vehicles being expected, the service would be better positioned in no distant future to address the security challenges facing the nation.

“The service through this initiative has trained and winged 133 pilots who today constitute 49 percent of all active Nigerian Air Force pilots that are fighting in different theatres of conflicts to secure our country and protect our people,” he said.

“Another 21 pilots will be completing their training before the end of the first quarter of 2021 to join their comrades in the fight to defend our territorial integrity and National sovereignty.”

I urged the new air chief to sustain and build on the capacity building initiatives we have put in place in the last 5 years.

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