Nigerian Air Force Commissions Residential Accommodation, Names It After Late Pilot

Nigerian Air Force Commissions Residential Accommodation, Names It After Late Pilot
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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) yesterday, 23 November 2017, commissioned a block of 6 x 3-bedroom flats for officers’ accommodation at the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Lagos. The residential block was named after late Squadron Leader Promise Gbenekannu, a C-130H aircraft pilot, who died on board a NAF C-130H aircraft while on a logistics resupply mission to troops fighting insurgency and terrorism in the North East. Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, represented by the Air Officer Commanding Logistics Commanding (AOC LC), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Ibrahim Yahaya, stated that it was appropriate for the Base to receive commensurate attention in the provision of facilities for the general well being of the personnel. This was necessitated by the fact that majority of the families of personnel working in different operational areas across reside within the Base.
According to the CAS, “We have embarked on the construction of new quarters as well as renovation and rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings to address the infrastructural decay of the past. Arrangements are in top gear to address many other areas of infrastructural deficit, including the renovation of more accommodation facilities as well as rehabilitation of roads and drainage systems in the Base”. “It is hoped that this would create an enabling environment and motivation for personnel to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently”, he said. The CAS said the NAF would continue to do its best to discharge its statutory responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of the nation. While charging the beneficiaries to properly maintain the accommodation, the CAS expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for the continued support to the military, especially the NAF. He therefore enjoined personnel to sustain the efforts at repositioning the NAF into a highly professional and disciplined force for effective, efficient and timely employment of air power.
Earlier, the Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) Logistics Command, AVM Ibukun Ojeyemi, who delivered the welcome address on behalf of the AOC LC, noted that the project was part of the value additions that were continuously being made by the current NAF administration in line with the mantra of the CAS that “There is no finishing line in the race to add value to the society”. He added that 3 other projects were ongoing to further meet the growing accommodation need occasioned by the expansion of the Service in response to national security imperatives.
In recent times, the morale of NAF personnel has been increasingly getting higher as the perennial accommodation challenge within the NAF gets gradually resolved, all thanks to the timely provision of funds by the Federal Government Administration and the focused leadership of the CAS. Present at the commissioning ceremony were the family of the late C-130H aircraft pilot as well as senior officers, both serving and retired.