The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it will re-strategies its ‘’Diran Mikiya’’ operation in Zamfara to cover Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina states to effectively fight bandits in the forests linking the states.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, stated this while fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday in Katsina, after accessing the operation in Zamfara.
’NAF will now carry out the operations to cover Katsina, Sokoto, and Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna State, to effectively fight criminals in the forests that linked those states.
‘’We are here to access the progress we are making in operation ‘’Diran Mikiya’’ which started about three months ago to fight against bandits in Zamfara.
‘’We have come back from Gusau and we are happy with the progress made so far.
‘’NAF is going to re-strategies because all these forests are connected.
‘’And we are going to have a small NAF outpost in Birnin-Gwari, and have an outfit where our helicopters will land, fuel and continue their operations,’’ he said.
Abubakar revealed that NAF had made some progress, stressing that there are some challenges, which made it necessary to re-strategies in order to succeed in flushing out the criminals from the forests.
‘’Birnin-Gwari is becoming one of the areas of concern, so we will re-strategies our operations to cover Zamfara-Sokoto borders, Zamfara-Katsina borders and Zamfara-Birnin-Gwari axis to enable Nigerians to go about their legal businesses,’’ he said.
The Chief of Air Staff commended Katsina State government for supporting their operations.
He also solicited for more support in the area of intelligence from the public to enable it succeed in the entire operation. (NAN)