The National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, on Wednesday, inaugurated a helipad set up by the Nigerian Air Force in Monguno town, to enhance its operation against the Boko Haram insurgents in the Lake Chad region.
Monguno also commissioned an office complex and residential accommodation built for officers and airmen at the newly- established 171 NAF Detachment in the area.
The NAF 171 detachment was set up in the 8 Division, Nigerian Army, Monguno in Monguno Local Government Area, Borno.
Monguno said the new Air Force unit would add value to the counter-insurgency operation, restoration of peace and stabilisation process in the troubled region.
He described the projects as a significant milestone in NAF’s drive to enhance air power in all the nook and cranny of the country.
The NSA added that the project was designed to provide additional military options in conducting aerial surveillance on the border with Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republics to check terrorists’ activities and cross-border crimes.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, explained that the service detachment was designed to enhance the endurance limitations of air power in the counter-insurgency operations in the North-East and the Lake Chad region.
“The establishment of the unit will expand and increase the reach of the service platforms in operations around border areas,” Abubakar added.
In another Boko Haram related story, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has temporally relocated to NAF Base, Maiduguri. This was disclosed in a statement by the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, AVM Olatokunbo Adesanya, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The relocation is to enable the Chief of the Air Staff to coordinate and intensify the search of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls.
