From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has announced the appointment of new Branch Officers, Air Officers Commanding (AOCs), and other senior officers to man its units and formations across the country, in a major shake up in the service.
The appointment came barely 24 hours after the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Isiaka Oladayo Amao, paid an operational visit to operational and air component commanders in the North East.
NAF Director, Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, who made the disclosure, said all the newly appointed and redeployed senior officers are expected to assume their new offices on or before today.
Gabkwet, in a statement, listed the newly appointed Branch Chiefs to include: Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Jackson Yusuf, formerly Chief of Training and Operations (CTOP), who is now the Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP) Headquarters, NAF (HQ NAF), Abuja; AVM Oluwafemi Ogunmola, former Director of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, now Chief of Communications Information Systems (CCIS), HQ NAF; AVM Aliyu Bello, former Chief of Standards and Evaluation (COSE), now redeployed as the CTOP, HQ NAF, Abuja, while AVM Nkem Aguiyi takes over as the Chief of Air Intelligence (CAI) and AVM Hassan Abubakar, former AOC Logistics Command, now the Chief of Standards and Evaluation. In the same vein, the erstwhile COPP, AVM Charles Ohwo, is now the Chief of Defence Transformation and Innovation, Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Abuja; AVM Abubakar Liman, former CAI is now the Director of Space Utilisation, DHQ; AVM Hycienth Eze, former Group Managing Director (GMD), NAF Holding Company, takes over as Director of Production, DHQ; AVM Musa Muktar takes over as the GMD NAF Holding Company while AVM Raimi Salami, the erstwhile CCIS is now the Director of Strategy, DHQ.
The newly appointed AOCs are AVM Precious Amadi, AOC Tactical Air Command (TAC), Makurdi; AVM Abubakar Abdulkadir, AOC Special Operations Command (SOC), Bauchi; AVM Nnamdi Ananaba, AOC Air Training Command (ATC), Kaduna, while AVM Emmanuel Shobande takes over as AOC Logistics Command (LC), Lagos.
In his message to the new appointees, Air Marshal Amao reminded them of the need to continually seek for effective and efficient means of deploying the resources at their disposals in line with the reviewed NAF counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategy.
(Continued on www.sunnewsonline.com)
He also charged them to be proactive and synergise with sister services towards eliminating the threats, particularly posed by terrorists in the country.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed and redeployed senior officers are expected to assume their new offices on or before today.