The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, on Wednesday said the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has commenced the airlift of election materials for supplementary elections.
He spoke during the quarterly CAS conference with Branch Chiefs and Air Officers Commanding (AOC) at the NAF headquarters in Abuja.
He noted that, “for the supplementary elections, our aircraft were able to convey some materials yesterday to Jalingo, Yola and Bauchi.”
He said, “Similarly we are rounding up the distribution of supplementary election materials to other areas the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wants us to go.”
He said the NAF was able to airlift over 820,000 kilograms of electoral materials using eight aircrafts to 31 different locations in Nigeria.
He noted that, “We were able to conclude this despite the fact we were really brought in late but ensured that the presidential, national assembly elections, as well as the state governorship elections and states’ houses of assembly elections, were conducted.”
Daily Trust gathered that the NAF was part of the joint security committee setup by INEC for the 2019 general election but were brought into the logistics committee at the last minute.
This, it was learnt, may have caused some logistic problems that affected the planning of the distribution of election materials.
Abubakar said, “I want to congratulate the aircrafts engineering branch and the general operation branch as well as all commanders for cooperating and supporting to ensure that materials are where they are so that Nigerians can exercise their right in selecting their leaders.”
“We are expecting the Augusta 109 power helicopter very soon from Italy and the President and Commander-in-Chief will be invited to the launching ceremony that will signify the renewed efforts of the government to ensure that there is security in the North West geopolitical zones.
“Particularly Zamfara, Sokoto and parts of Kaduna states where we have new detachments, that has now been approved by the Air council,” he added.
He said, “We are currently reactivating five aircraft, 3 L39 life extension programmes taking place in Kano and we have MI 35P and EC 135 helicopter in Port Harcourt.”
“Similarly, three Alpha jets in Kainji are being overhauled which I believe by September, we should have these Alpha jets flying. I believe these efforts will substantially improve our capacity to make Nigeria secured,” He said.
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