BRITISH MILITARY TRAINS MORE REGIMENTAL PERSONNEL FOR NIGERIA

Five officers and 200 airmen trained by British military in a 5-month Basic Regiment Courses have graduated recently from the Regiment Training Centre. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says its collaboration with the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT) has produced another batch of trained NAF Regimental personnel.

This is contained in a statement signed by its Director of Public Relations and Information, Group Capt. Ayodele Famuyiwa, and made available to newsmen in Abuja. According to Famuyiwa , the grandaunts comprised five officers and 200 airmen who graduated recently from the Regiment Training Centre (RTC), Kaduna State, having undergone 5-month Basic Regiment Courses for officers and airmen respectively.

He explained that the objective of the basic courses was to impact the participants with basic regiment skills and knowledge to enable them meet the complex demands of emerging security challenges. “BMATT handled the airfield defence and force protection aspects of the training that lasted for 6 weeks.

“Among the graduands are additional 35 members of Defence Headquarters Special Forces trained in rappelling to impact in them the basic insertion/extraction skills for special operations,” he said. Famuyiwa explained further that earlier in the year, the RTC in collaboration with BMATT, had graduated two batches of students totaling 313.

This, he said, included NAF officers, airmen and airwomen as well as personnel from the Nigerian Navy and Defence Headquarters. Famuyiwa said that the new graduands were expected to be deployed to the North-East to boost the current strength of personnel involved in the fight against the insurgents. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that RTC had trained a total of 518 officers and men since its establishment in Jan. 20.