The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar, on Saturday, vowed that the force would be decisive and ruthless in tackling the war against insurgency as well as ridding off criminal elements in the country.
According to Abubakar, the era of treating criminal elements terrorising the corporate existence of the country with kid gloves was over.
The CAS, who was represented by the Air Officer Commanding, Air Training Command, Kaduna, Air Vice Marshal Nnamdi Ananaba, stated this during the graduation of 628 Officers and Airmen/Women of year 2023 of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna, on Saturday.
The institute is a military university with the mandate of training military and civilian students in aerospace, defence, and engineering as well as other fields.
Abubakar charged the graduates to be good ambassadors of the Nigerian Air Force, noting that at a time like this, the NAF needs to operate optimally in order to effectively address the current spate of insecurity across the country.
He also commended President Bola Tinubu for his unwavering support to the Armed Forces of Nigeria and in particular to the Nigerian Air Force without which, he said, “our current level of operational successes would not have been possible.”
The CAS said, “Let me reiterate here that the era of treating criminal elements in our country with kids’ gloves is over. We must continue on this trajectory until we bring all of them to their knees.
“Therefore, as you rejoin the mainstream workforce of the Nigerian Air Force, your contributions would be instrumental to our collective efforts to sustain and even surpass the current intensity of air operations until we completely rid our country of all forms of criminalities.
“The Air Force Institute of Technology is one of the Nigerian Air Force’s foremost training institutions positioned to facilitate one key enabler of my philosophy which is deliberate training and mission-oriented force development.
“let me congratulate the entire staff of AFIT for successfully executing the sundry military programmes and graduating 628 officers and airmen/airwomen today. Undoubtedly, it is through these programmes that the Institute enhances the quality of skilled technical manpower of the NAF, this has largely contributed to the NAF’s current status of being more self-reliant for our platforms and equipment maintenance.”
Earlier in his address, the AFIT Commandant, Air Vice Marshal Sani Rabe, said that despite the expansion of AFIT and the increase in its mandate, the Institute has not lost focus on its primary role of producing quality technical manpower for the Nigerian Air Force.
According to him, all successive managements of the Institute have been making efforts to sustain the vision of the founding fathers.
“Meeting the NAF’s skilled manpower requirements therefore remains paramount in AFIT’s endeavour despite its expanding mandate. It is in fulfilment of this task that today we are graduating 37 officers who have completed their Initial Officers’ Course, and 591 airmen/airwomen who have completed various Basic as well as Advanced/Intermediate Upgrading Courses”, he said.
