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Alex Badeh: Killing of ex-Defence Chief ‘not entirely a military affair’ – Air Chief, Sadique Abubakar

Published

6 years ago

December 19, 2018

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has condemned the killing of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh.

Speaking at the Fourth Quarter Chief of Air Staff Conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Abubakar said the force has been working very closely since Tuesday night to apprehend those behind the heinous crime, adding that “by the special grace of God, we will get them and they will face justice.”

According to him, the killers of Badeh “is not entirely a military affair; those guys that shot Badeh came from an environment; so, we all have to put hands together to make sure that our national security is not undermined by individuals.”

The Air chief stressed that the death of Badeh is an eternal reminder to Nigerians that the military had shouldered the responsibility of protecting lives and property of all Nigerians.

“Though we are working hard, we should redouble our efforts; we need to work round the clock, we need to put in more effort.

“We need to collaborate more closely to ensure that these criminals are not allowed to endanger the lives of our people.

“On our part, as a service, I am sure you are aware of the efforts we are making to build the capacity of the special force and regiment personnel so as to add value to what we are doing in all parts of the country,” he said.

Abubakar further disclosed that the service recruited no fewer than 700 regiment personnel who were in training in Kaduna, adding that another batch would commence training soon.

According to him, the idea is to make sure that we bridge the gap there is in our system in order to be able to deal with these challenges.

He stressed that security was everybody’s business, and that every Nigerian had a role to play to ensure that Nigeria was safe and secure.

He pointed out that the military had been working to ensure that every Nigerian was able to pursue his or her business without fear or intimidation.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly for the resources they had provided to ensure that security challenges were reduced.

“There are gaps and these gaps have been there for long and we are trying to bridge them,” he said, and announced that NAF had just received one of its aircraft, NAF 476, from the United States.

“We are working on it to make sure that we have sufficient number of aircrafts.”

The air chief assured Nigerians that the service was working round-the-clock to ensure that Nigeria’s sovereignty was not under threat.

He appealed to the Chiefs and Commanders at the conference not to be discouraged, but to be very bold and courageous to ensure that the country was secure.

Badeh died from gunshot injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm along Abuja-Keffi road.