From ANDREW OROLUA, Abuja.
The Nigerian Air Forces has deployed personnel of counter-terrorist special forces to the country major airports to forestall terrorists’ attack at the country airports.
The Chief of the Air staff (CAS), Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar disclosed this on Wednesday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja after a practical counter-terrorist exercise tagged “exercise steel dome.”
Abubakar expressed satisfaction with the level of alertness displayed by the troops, however said the country was not anticipating a hijack or terrorist attack at any of the country’s airport.
The purpose of continuous training, he said, is to acquire skills and get prepared for emergency but “if you have the skills except you are tested, one can not be confident”.
He said that the mock exercise in which the special forces backed by troops protection unit, police anti-bomb explosive units, some staff of Federal Air Port Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other organic security agencies took part was to enable NAF authorities evaluate the level of co-ordination among the agencies.
“We at least now have an idea of what will happen when such incident occurred, even as we have high hope that it will not happen here” he said.
The Chief of the Air Staff emphasised that the simulation exercise was not done because they are anticipating any attack.
He however pointed out that the troops’ insertion on the roof of the airport terminal building was slow and the speed needs to be improved upon.
Abubakar also asked what happened if terrorists were to have taken passengers hostage and occupied the access roads to the airport.
In the simulation exercise, mock terrorists who held passengers hostage at the boarding lounge were rounded up by personnel of the special force that gained entrance into the building through the roof of the terminal building.
As the battle raged on amidst gun sound from rubber bullets, passengers and staff at the airport scampered for safety under the table even though they were informed earlier not to panic.
Earlier in his briefing, the Director of Regiment Headquarters Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olusesan Idowu said that CAS directed the holding of the practical exercise following the recent attacks in Belgium and Turkey.
He expressed the hope that the NAF would draw valuable lessons from the exercise.
