The Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, has said the Nigerian Air Force has introduced Special Dog unit (K-9) to boost security in airports and NAF bases nationwide.

Mr. Abubakar made this known in Yola while celebrating Eid-el-Kabir with officers of the Yola Air Force Base engaged in the fight against insurgency in the North-east.

Mr. Abubakar said already some personnel of the unit had been trained by the Nigerian Police and some had gone for more training in South Africa.

“Very soon, we will be deploying them to our airports and bases to add value to what we are doing in terms of protection,” he said.

Mr. Abubakr also said that NAF has embarked on restructuring to effectively deliver on its responsibilities to the nation. He said that with the restructuring, the air force would be better placed and equipped to deliver on its responsibilities.

“We are restructuring and that’s why we have two more commands, Special Operations Command and Ground Training Command. Very soon in all our units, no technician will go for guard duty.

“We are building capacity in terms of having the required number of Special Forces so that those trained as special forces will take over the defence of the base so that technicians concentrate on maintenance of aircraft.

“Right now we are training 450 special forces in Kaduna in phases,” he said.

Mr. Abubakar said that with the ongoing training and retraining of air force personnel to meet current challenges, the era when flying officers and lieutenants learn how to fly on the job would soon be over.

“We will continue to build the capacity of our instructors and also ensure that we have sufficient aeroplanes to conduct the primary flying training. This will enable every student pilot that is admitted into the school complete his or her training as a cadet like we used to have in the 80’s.

“We are also building capacity in terms of tactical training for fighter pilots. I have just been informed that the 2nd batch of pilots going to fly with the Egyptian Air Force will be leaving very soon,” an excited Mr. Abubakar said.