Boko Haram war not yet over‎ -Air Force General

The Chief of Standard and Evaluation, Nigerian Air Force and immediate past Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Training Command of the Nigerian Air‎ Force, Kaduna, AVM Salihu Bala-Riba has said that the war against Boko Haram insurgency is not over yet. He said, this is because the insurgents will want to prove that, the incoming regime of General Muhammadu Buhari cannot do any better than the outgoing government in the fight against insurgency. AVM Bala-Riba stated this in Kaduna Thursday when he was handing over to the ‎AVM Alkali Mamu as the new Air Officer Commanding (AOC), Training Command, Nigerian Air Force, Kaduna. While expressing delight over the President-Elect’s statement that, “Boko Haram will soon see the collective will of all Nigerians”, he reminded officers and men of the armed forces that they are the arrow-head of that collective will, therefore they cannot afford to relax. According to him, “I was hard on my subordinates to achieve maximum security and excellence in our responsibilities. I had to be very hard because, I would rather die fighting than to be caught up and killed like a sleeping fowl. “You don’t expect me to allow insurgents take over any barrack under Training Command. If that ‎happens, some civilians will faint in their homes, because they look up to the military to defend them,” he said. In his remarks, the incoming AOC, AVM Alkali Mohammed Mamu said the outgoing AOC has taught excellent pilots to support the operation of the Nigerian Air Force and to a large extent, has supported the insurgency operation in the North. According to him, “AVM Bala-Riba, came in as AOC at a very difficult time when the nation is facing internal security and I am proud to note that, throughout his tenure, there was no any incident at the Training Command,” he said. He however assured that, he is going to have a collective leadership and asked that the officers lead their men with a view to sending the air force to the next level.