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Abubakar made the submission on Tuesday, a day after terrorists reportedly downed military aircraft which led to the death of some military personnel.
Assuring the Niger State Government of a continued partnership in the fight against terror activities in the state, he explained to the visiting Governor, Umar Bago, that incidents like what happened on Monday in his state cannot be avoided as long as military aircraft take to the sky.
Bago was at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja to commiserate with the security chiefs over the death of soldiers killed in the incident in the state.
“As you are aware that Niger state and other states in this region are plagued by the menace of banditry, insurgency, and others. These challenges have continued to threaten the peace and security and well-being of the people.
“I want to assure you that the Nigerian Air Force and the Armed Forces of Nigeria remain committed, dedicated, and undaunted in our efforts at eradicating these security challenges being perpetrated by these non-state actors,” the Air Force boss said.
Responding, Bago pleaded with the security chiefs to deploy some detachment and fighter planes to Minna airport which was created as a backup for Abuja airport.
The governor said the deployment will ensure rapid responses from the military instead of flying from either Kainji or Kaduna.
Reacting to his plea, the Chief of Air Staff said measures are being put in place to match the air power demands of the nation’s security. He, however, noted that there were still challenges that were likely to impede such implementation
“Despite the efforts we have put in place, we have a couple of issues, one of them is the air crash. The fact is that as long as we fly aircraft, there will be incidents of accidents.
“In fact, the volume of incidents and accidents are directly proportional to the operations. On our part, we are not folding our arms even with the challenges.
“The idea is to thrive for zero incidents and accidents in any operational environment. We are putting a lot of initiatives in place to check this,” he said.
The Air Marshal further noted that the Air personnel have adopted a safety management system and operational management procedures in all its operations.
“We have other challenges which are seasonal. The rains have come and there is a cloud. This hampers what we can see as well as our strike capabilities. Likewise, when the harmattan comes, it also has effects on our operations.
“We hope that sometimes you will understand when our operations are hampered or impeded by some of these challenges. You have mentioned the issue of the Minna runway, we will look into it. We have been operating out of Minna for a couple of reasons.
“As much as we are intensifying efforts through a kinetics approach, empirically it has been proven that kinetics action only resolves 20 to 30 percent of our internal security issues.
“The remaining 70 to 80 percent can only be resolved through a whole of government approach. This deals with good governance, providing quality education and health care, jobs, and the like. It is important that it is addressed”.
Recall that terrorists reportedly hit a surveillance helicopter in the state on Monday leading to the death of some officers.
Multiple sources had confirmed that the crash of the helicopter, belonging to the Nigerian Air Force was shot down by terrorists loyal to Abubakar Abdallah, known as Dogo Gide.
The influential terrorist has maintained dominance around some North Central and North West states for over five years.
Several reports monitored by this paper said the terrorists shot down the helicopter while on an evacuation mission to recover the bodies of military personnel allegedly killed during a forest gunbattle in the Chukuba area of Shiroro Local Government Area (LGA).
It was gathered that the soldiers had engaged the terrorists after they received reports of an alleged operation by the armed group for three days unhindered.
The gun duel resulted in casualties on both sides, at least 12 on the side of the terrorists, and at least 20 on the side of the military, it was reported.
The military aircraft flew to the theatre of the fight to evacuate the bodies of some military personnel when it came under attack leading to the crash.
THE WHISTLER reports that terrorists in July 2021, shot down a military jet on the border between Zamfara and Kaduna states.
The jet had just concluded a raid operation when it came under intense fire.
One of the pilots of the ill-fated aircraft, Flight Lt Abayomi Dairo ejected and used “survival instincts” to avoid capture and find shelter, before rejoining his comrades.
