Barely 48 hours after his directive to Nigerian Air Force (NAF) operational and air component commanders to maximize the deployment of firepower against terrorists and other criminal elements, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao has approved the immediate appointment and redeployment of new Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding (AOCs) and other senior officers.
Among the newly appointed Branch Chiefs are 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) is 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 is 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 Utilization, DHQ, AVM Hycinth 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. He also charged them to be proactive and synergize 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 Friday, 5 August 2022.
▪︎ By Edward Gabkwet, Air Commodore, Director of Public Relations & Information, Nigerian Air Force