British military to train 300 NAF personnel amid coup alert

- British military is expected to train 300 regiment personnel in order to have reliable and highly skilled personnel that can protect all NAF bases in Nigeria

- This comes after Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, raised a new alarm saying that the organisation’s bases in the country are under threat

- NAF is re-strategizing to ensure that bases in the country are never attacked again after its base in Maiduguri, Borno state capital, was attacked in 2013 by Boko Haram

The British Military Assistant Team (BMAT) is expected to train 300 personnel of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF), according to Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar.

Abubakar disclosed this in Kaduna while commissioning some completed projects at the NAF base including a control tower and electronic range.

According to him, the training is aimed at having reliable and highly skilled personnel that can protect all NAF bases in Nigeria, add value to security at airports and to assist in states where there are security challenges, Daily Trust reports.

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He said NAF is re-strategizing to ensure that bases in the country are never attacked again.

Also, Abubakar noted that to achieve it purpose, efforts have been put in place to avoid a repeat of destruction of air asset.

He said: "The British Military Assistant Team (BMAT) who are expected in the country to train 300 regiment personnel in order to have reliable and highly skilled personnel that can protect all NAF bases in Nigeria, add value to security at airports and to assist in states where there are security challenges."

Commenting on the outcome of an earlier meeting with branch chiefs, AOCs, Commanders and Commandants, he said the meeting is essentially to review activities in the last quarter and to also see what progress they are making in terms of realizing what was set to achieve in the second quarter.

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He said: "We have identified a few gaps which we are working hard to ensure we close those gaps and transform them into something positive for our country.

"The facilities we just commissioned supposed to be for training of base defense force or critical assets protection force. You know you can have air planes, if the base is not properly defended you will still run into problems. We saw that in December 2013 when our base was attacked in Maiduguri and some air asset destroyed. We don't want that to happen again. So, what we have been doing all the while is to build the capacity of base defense.

"The evolving security environment globally and indeed our nation has become complex and most times unpredictable. We are faced with a myriad of security challenges ranging from terrorism to militancy, kidnapping to economic sabotage.

"Given the importance of bases in the airpower delivery matrix, it is not inconceivable to expect our adversaries to target our bases. As a matter of fact, we have had an attack on one of our airbases in the recent past, and current intelligence reports keep highlighting the possibility of attacks on our bases."

Recall that Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar had raised an new alarm saying that the organisation’s bases in the country are under threat.

NAIJ.com had earlier reported that there was an attack sometime in December 2013 on the NAF base in Maiduguri, Borno state by members of Boko Haram.

Watch this video of the bombardment of a Boko Haram base by men of the Nigerian Air Force recently: