Abuja,April 6, 2020 The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), has inaugurated four newly remodeled and renovated blocks of 36 x single-bedroom flats for Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) at Sam Ethnan Air Force Base (SEAFB) Ikeja.
Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, made this known in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
Daramola said the accommodation was part of the continued efforts of the NAF to ensure decent and comfortable accommodation for its personnel for effective service delivery and professional performance.
“The projects were aimed at ensuring conducive living environment for the 144 benefiting personnel and their families as a motivation to discharge their duties more effectively and efficiently.
“The NAF has also continued to strengthen measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 through sensitisation of its personnel and emplacement of appropriate precautionary measures,” he said.
Daramola said the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, during inauguration ceremony on Monday, disclosed that since assumption of office, the current NAF leadership had prioritised the provision of decent housing for personnel.
This, Abubakar said, had resulted in large-scale construction of new office and residential accommodations and massive renovation and upgrading of the existing accommodation that were in various states of disrepair.
According to the COAS, we shall continue to undertake such laudable projects whose resultant effects would revitalise your professional competence and yield higher quality output”.
Abubakar said that the NAF, in collaboration with sister security agencies, would continue to work assiduously to ensure the restoration of peace and security in all parts of the country.
He said this would be through the effective projection of Air Power as well as the contribution of its Regiment and Special Forces personnel for internal security operations across the country.
The air chief urged the beneficiaries to reciprocate the gesture by ensuring that the facilities were used with high sense of responsibility, whilst continuing to contribute their quota to ensure the security of Nigeria and Nigerians in their various places of deployment.
Abubakar was represented by AVM Lawal Alao, the Air Officer Commanding Logistics Command (AOC LC) at the inauguration.
Earlier, the Commander 651 Base Services Group, Air Commodore Rasaq Olanrewaju, expressed gratitude to the COAS for the priority attention given to the welfare needs of personnel.
He disclosed that the disinfection and sanitisation of SEAFB was at about 90 per cent completion, in accordance with NAF Headquarters (HQ) directives.
Alao said that the sensitisation had also been sustained to educate the Base community on ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The commander said that with the support of HQ NAF, SEAFB had emplaced palliative measures to alleviate the sufferings of the Base Community occasioned by the lockdown of Lagos State as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He further disclosed that one of such palliatives was the establishment of a COVID-19-Compliant Mobile Farm Market on the Base, with the assistance of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture.
Daramola added that those present at the event were NAF Director of works, Air Commodore Abiola Amodu, as well as some Unit Commanders in the Lagos area.
He added that the High point of the inauguration ceremony was the presentation of keys to some of the beneficiaries.