The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said counter-insurgency operations would now be focused in the South-South region of the country.

He said: ‎“The challenges in the North-East have been substantially addressed, so we are not too worried now with the North-East‎; our main focus would now be to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria in the South-South.”

Abubakar spoke Saturday at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, after leading officers and air men in Abuja through the third quarter ten kilometre route match.

He said there are plans to launch an exercise in the South-South region to check the menace of militants destroying oil infrastructure.

He said the operations ‎is to ensure that oil and gas infrastructure are not destroyed by any group or group of individuals.

He said: “Very soon we would launch an exercise in the south-south also, and the aim of the exercise is to protect our people and the infrastructure of Nigeria.”

He said: “We are all ‎aware of the challenging the Nigerian state is facing so we must therefore be in the best of forms in terms of our health and physical well being, to be able to address these challenges.”

“It is very gratifying to note that the leadership of the Nigerian Airforce from the Chief of Staff, to the Branch Chiefs ‎to Directors are all here to participate in this important exercise, the challenges of today, requires a sound mind in a sound body,” he added.

Abubakar noted: “This is why the quarterly route match exercise is an exercise we take seriously, we want to assure Nigerian, by this exercise, that even at the highest level, we are capable, and willing to face the challenges in the Nigerian state.”

•Excerpted from a Daily Trust report. Photo shows NAF men set for an operation.