Gbajabiamila reacts on multiple military air crashes

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has expressed regret over eight different crashes involving aircraft belonging to the Nigeria Air Force during non-combatant flights between 2015 and 2019.

The speaker who was represented by Acting Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Peter Akpatason at an investigative hearing into the crashes, organised by the Committee on Air Force on Monday, however expressed the determination of the 9th assembly to supporting all measure aimed at ensuring the security of lives of Nigerians, and the nation’s territorial integrity.

He said the national security challenges being faced by Nigeria “today posed great danger to collective well being. It undermines our efforts to improve the economy and create jobs. It deprives our people the opportunity to live full life”, adding that in addressing those challenges, the Air Force remained very critical.

According to the speaker, the House had an obligation to support the Air Force through adequate funding, to that its personnel are properly trained to avert future occurrence of avoidable crashes, which he lamented have led to “loss of human lives, created panic and loss of equipment”.

Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the committee, Hon. Mohammad Koko, who also expressed regrets on the development, noted that “as joint partners, we are determined to proffer solutions to this problem”, adding that since the recent crashes, several questions, including whether they were fallout of poor training, or cases of exuberance on the part of the pilots.

On his part, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said the Air Force was “doing everything humanly possible to seeing that Nigerians are secured”, giving assurance that its personnel obtained the best of quality training.  

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