CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF ADDRESS: SECOND QUARTER 2016 ROUTE MARCH EXERCISE

I will like to start this address by thanking the Almighty for enabling us to gather here today for the Second Quarter 2016 Route March. This is a demonstration of our resolve to ensure that personnel keep fit at all times. I therefore congratulate you all for a successful outing. This exercise is very timely given that as you are all aware, the war against insurgency and terrorism in the country is still ongoing and any of you here could be deployed at a short notice for the operation in the NE or indeed any part of the country where we are deployed.

The Nigerian Air Force has continued to sustain the tempo of its operation and have degraded the capacity of the insurgents and denied them freedom of movement. We have continued to target their logistic bases, ammunition depots and destroyed mines laid by insurgents on access routes. We are optimistic that within a short time God willing; the Boko Haram menace would become a thing of the past. Similarly, the Nigerian Air Force has continued to contribute its quota in various internal security operations across the country aimed at combating all forms of criminality. To sustain the tempo of these operations, there is the need to train and reinvigorate certain professional ethics that have eroded over the years.