Saturday, October 29, 2016
Embrace Dialogue Or Face Full Military Force, NAF Warns Militants

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, has warned Niger Delta militants to dialogue with the Federal Government and embrace peace, otherwise full weight of the law would descend on them.

Air Marshall Abubakar declared this yesterday, while commissioning new blocks of Airmen quarters at the 97 Special Operations Group (SOG) of NAF, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The NAF boss advised militants to stop pipeline vandalism and destruction of oil installations, which have caused environmental pollution and economic damage to the nation’s economy.

Abubakar said NAF placed priority on the training of Air Force personnel, adding that it had groomed over 700 professional.

He said: “I think the Niger Delta problem requires a comprehensive solution.

“Our response is to protect Nigeria and Nigerians and Nigeria’s territory. That is what we are doing. And the whole thing is about ensuring we have professional service.

“Professionalism requires training and about providing for the welfare of the people; that informed this accommodation.

“We have trained over 700 of our personnel in the last one year, in different parts of the world. And all these are about efficiency service. As we take care of training, we also take care of the welfare of the people”, Abubakar noted.

He recalled: “Our message to them is that they should embrace and dialogue with the Federal Government. On our part, we will continue to discharge our constitutional responsibility. We are not unaware of our responsibility. We are doing everything possible to protect Nigerians.

“We will do everything humanly possible to protect lives and ensure peace. The constitution has given us mandate to protect our people. Let them embrace peace; but, if they fail to do that, we have a constitutional responsibility to protect lives”, he declared.