Contrary
to claims that the Boko Haram sect is winning the war in the North-east
despite efforts to dislodge it, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said the
military had decimated the terrorist group.
The Chief of Air
Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosun, said this at the weekend at the
graduation ceremony of course 2/2014 of the Nigerian Armed Forces
Resettlement Centre (NAFRC), Oshodi, organised by the Commandant, Air
Vice Marshal Monday Morgan.
Amosun said in an interview with
THISDAY that the soldiers in the North-east region had been able to do
considerable damage to the operations of the Boko Haram insurgents in
the area.
He said the combined efforts of the personnel of NAF
alongside other arms of the armed forces had been successful in
incapacitating the insurgents.
Amosun further said the military
was able to do this by weakening the capabilities of the insurgents and
destroying their supply lines.
He also said the NAF had been able
to provide strategic and tactical airlift for the army to enable them
combat insurgency within the North-eastern part of the country.
CAS
said: “Unlike the situation in Mali where the forces fighting
insurgents in that area were unable to get strategic airlift, we have
been able to support the operations of the military through the
airlifting of troops and ability to drop supplies where needed.
“Despite
the pressure from the civil populace for the quick resolution of the
crisis, the officers and men of the armed forces are not relenting in
their effort to flush out the insurgents within the region.”
Earlier,
the Minister of Defence, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd), had urged the
retirees to always uphold the highest standards of conduct, character,
integrity and teamwork as they would be held accountable for these
standards even while in retirement.
Gusau, who was represented by
the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Aliyu Numan, said: “As the
nation is in the critical stage of battling insurgents in the
North-eastern part of the country, a lot is still required from the
retiring members of the armed forces.
“Especially wherever they
find themselves in the aspect of collaboration with other serving
members of the armed forces and other security agencies of our
fatherland to completely eradicate this threat of insurgency in our
society.”
He also commended the leadership of NAFRC for the
vision and commitment to transform the centre into a more robust and
rewarding institution through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
scheme.
Gusau said efforts were on to ensure that the NAFRC bill
which will transform the centre to a centre of excellence in handling
the retirement of personnel would be passed before the end of the
administration.
Also, NAFRC’s Commandant, Air Vice Marshal
Morgan, said the PPP scheme would allow the centre the opportunity to
tap from the private sector’s management skills, technical expertise and
efficiency system for the overall benefit of the centre.
In line
with this, he said the governing board of the institution had already
approved the scheme in principle, adding that efforts to commence full
implementation of the scheme within the shortest possible time are
on-going.
The commandant explained that part of the cutting edge
innovation being considered at the NAFRC was to link training to
entrepreneurship and business development.
He said: “We want to
go further not only in providing entrepreneurship training to retiring
service personnel, but to fill the gap that has been missing.
“We
want to provide seed money and start-up capital to all our successful
trainees to start their own micro, small and medium enterprises.
“We
are working out the modalities to accomplish this with our technical
partners who have access to both local and international funders.”
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