Saturday, July 12, 2008

Airforce retires 20 officers
From Madu Onuorah, Abuja

THE Nigerian Air Force (NAF) yesterday officially pulled out 20 of its Air Officer ranks from active service at a colourful ceremony at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja.

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Officially listed for the group send-forth ceremony, the first of its type in the Nigerian military were 14 Air Vice Marshals (AVMs), equivalent of Major Generals and six Air Commodores, equivalent of Brigadier Generals.

Among them were the immediate past Air Officers Commanding (AOCs) - Tactical Air Command (TAC) Makurdi, AVM Felix Olufemi Gbadebo, Training Command (TC), Kaduna, AVM Osita Obierika and Logistics Command (LC) AVM Adekunle Awarun.

It also includes the Commandants of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji - AVM Emmanuel Roberts Ejeh and the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, Oshodi, AVM Musa Yusuf Aisimi; three principal officers of the NAF Headquarters - AVM Olufemi Faloyin (Air Officer Operations), AVM Gabriel Friday Abdul (Air Officer Logistics) and AVM Sesan Isaac Awofodu.

Others are AVMs Saliu Atowodi, Oladele Friday Iyanalu, Nelson Nathan Dilli, Felix Emumwen Ateru, Bashir Olajide Kotti, Christian Obinna Marizu and Adekunle Awarun.

The six Air Commodores retired were Omololu Tokunbo Ajomale, Godfrey Dania Okolo, Yunana Simon Ndauno, Felix Ronnie Obiuwevbi, Ikechukwu Innocent Nnamani and Olabode Abiodun Olagoke.

They had all served for between 32 to 35 years in the NAF.

Most of the Air Vice Marshals retired were either from the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular (NDA) Course 12 - AVMs Atawodi, Iyanalu, Ateru, Aisimi, NDA Special Short Service (SSS) 5 as potential pilots (AVMs) Faloyin, Gbadebo, Obierika, Ejeh and Awofodu), Course 13 (AVMs Dilli, Abdul, Marizu and Awarun.

The current Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike is also a member of the NDA Course 12, just like the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi and the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye.

Other officers who were also affected by the retirements include nine Group Captains (equivalent of Army's Colonels), 10 Wing Commanders, two Squadron Leaders, seven Flight Lieutenants and 16 Flying Officers (Army's equivalent of Lieutenants).

The ceremonial parade held at the Mogadishu Cantonment ground include the Match on parade, Match in of the national and service colours, inspection of parade by the honourees, match past in slow and quick time, silent drill, combat drill, match in review order and parade match out.

Among the dignitaries at the event include the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, Gen Azazi, Air Marshal Dike, Admiral Adekeye and former Chiefs of the Air Staff.