Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, has raised an alarm that the Nigerian Air Force bases in the country is under threat of attack from terrorists.
Abubakar made this known on Thursday while Addressing participants at the opening ceremony of Base Defence Planning Retreat at Air Force Base, Kaduna.
The air chief at this point task officers and men of the Nigerian Air force to be vigilant as he also requested for the assistance of British Military Assistant Team to train Nigerian Air Force personnel on how to secure its bases and equipment.
Addressing the participants Abubakar said “We have had an attack on one of our airbases in the recent past, and current intelligence reports keep highlighting the possibility of attacks on our bases. “Given the importance of bases in the airpower delivery matrix, it is not inconceivable to expect our adversaries to target our bases. “The evolving security environment globally and, indeed, our nation has become complex and most times unpredictable. We are faced with a myriad of security challenges, ranging from terrorism to militancy, kidnapping to economic sabotage”
According to him his meeting with officers earlier was to review activities in the last quarter and to also see what progress was being made in achieving set target.
Abubakar further disclosed that “The facilities we just commissioned are supposed to be for training of base defense force or critical assets protection force. You know you can have air planes, if the base is not properly defended, you will still run into problems. We saw that in December 2013 when our base was attacked in Maiduguri and some air asset destroyed. We don’t want that to happen again. So, what we have been doing all the while is to build the capacity of base defense. “We have identified a few gaps which we are working hard to ensure we close and transform them into something positive for our country.
The newly trained Officers according to Abubakar will on assumption of office have to develop a robust base defense concept in view to carry out a review of the then base defense concept.
