The Council of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) has approved the promotion of 78 senior officers to the next higher ranks.
The promotions comprised of 14 Air Vice Marshals, 19 Air Commodores and 45 Group Captains.
Those promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal include the Air Component Commander OPERATION DELTA SAFE, Air Commodore Paul Dimfwina.
The others are Commander Presidential Air Fleet, Air Commodore Saddiq Kaita; and Director of Legal Services at the Defence Headquarters, Air Commodore Mahmoud Ahmed.
The Chief of Accounts and Budget at Headquarters Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Clement Ogbeche and; Principal Air Staff Officer to the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore Abubakar Bagare.
Others include Air Commodores Mohammed Idris, Charles Oghomwen, Napoleon Bali, Remigus Ekeh, Abdulganiyu Olabisi, Ibukun Ojeyemi, Bello Garba, Tunde Awoyoola and Cletus Udeagulu.
Meanwhile, NAF is expecting arrival of war-planes and helicopters from Pakistan and Russia to boost its fleets.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar made the disclosure at a breakfast briefing in Abuja.
Air Marshal Abubakar said : “I want to say that we have been enjoying support from other countries. (Sometimes arm procurement) is shrouded in a lot of politics. Unfortunately, I’m not a politician, so I cannot be able to say much on that. But what I can tell you is that right now as I speak to you, we are expecting the Pakistani Chief of Air Staff in Nigeria soon. Pakistan has accepted to sell ten trainer airplanes. And that is why the Pakistan Chief of Air Staff is coming for the induction ceremony which is going to take place in Kaduna.
“We are really getting support from many countries. Similarly, we have trained so many people in Pakistan, China. In the US, we have pilots that are training right now. We have other pilots that have just finished training from the United Kingdom. We have additional pilots that are training in South Africa. We have more pilots that are training in the Egyptian Air Force and so many other places including Russia…We are really getting support”, he said.
He said that in the last 18 months, NAF have flown almost 3000 hours with no incident.
“In terms of competence I can tell you that the Nigerian Air Force pilots are amongst the most competent. Because the training curriculum is very clear.
“And that is why now in the Air Force you look at the wings, pilots wear wings. We have categorized the wings according to their skill levels. We also organize simulation training for our pilots, we organize evaluation visits where pilots are evaluated without any notice. We have also sent over 700 personnel of the NAF to different parts of the world to train and acquire the skills required for them to be effective.” NAN
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