The Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen Bashir Magashi (rtd), on Thursday charged officers, airmen and airwomen of the Nigerian Air Force to intensify the explosive tempo of anti-banditry and counter-terrorism nationwide.
The minister, in a statement by his spokesman, Mohammad Abdulkadri, urged them not to allow the recent aircraft crash in Kaduna to dampen their morale.
He decried that the crash depleted human capital assets of the NAF at a time air powers were being deployed to tackle the raging insecurity.
He described the death of the two pilots in the crash as “heroic”.
The statement partly read: “The Defence Minister with deep sense of loss said the sad occurrence has unfortunately depleted the human capital assets of the Nigerian Air Force in this challenging times when the service is professionally and tactically deploying its rich air powers in joint operating environment with land forces to end all threats to national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
