THE Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, said the Air Force carried out the counter-terrorism simulation exercise at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday, as it wanted to have a force that was actually going to be effective in the event of any problem in any of the country’s airports.
Regiment, as well as quick response forces participated in the exercise.
Speaking during the exercise, Abubakar said “you can have all the trainings, you can have all the skills, but unless you are tested from time to time, you will not be able to know whether there will be gaps.”
According to him, the whole essence of the exercise was to ensure that there were no gaps.
“And you also need to have the cooperation of the other agencies, coordinating with other agencies, it must be evaluated from time to time to know whether there will be problems in real situations. But with what I have seen this morning, I think I am very satisfied,” he said.
He said “I want to appreciate the airport authorities, I want to appreciate all the other agencies of government, the Army is represented here, the Navy is here with us, the National Security Adviser’s office is also here with us. The other security agencies— Immigration, Customs, FAAN security are also involved to ensure that we are able to deal with these situations if they arise.
“Certainly, we are starting with Nnamdi Azikiwe, we are going Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and we have enough special forces to undertake this type of operation.
“We are not anticipating anything, like I said, this is just an exercise, it is very important that you evaluate your plan from time to time, or else, you might have some gaps in what you have put together.
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