Nigerian Airforce Launches Special Mobility Unit In Calabar

To effectively address the security situation in the Niger Delta region, the Nigerian Airforce has upgraded its forwarding Base in Calabar to a 207 Special Mobility Unit.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Umar stated this in Calabar while commissioning single officers’ quarters erected for the officers that would man the unit.

According to the Chief of Air Staff, “in my calculation, for the overall national security and defence, I decided that the Nigerian Airforce needed to pay more attention to the Niger Delta region – the reason is simple, the Niger Delta Region is the goose that lays the golden egg and is deserving of a more pronounced presence of NAF.”

Air Marshal Umar who was represented by Air Vice Marshal Emmanuel Edem, said the Mobility Unit has headquarters in Yenagoa and that the Airforce Base in Calabar was upgraded to a Mobility Unit and fitted with the robust Mi -17 Russian helicopter to ensure that the aerial security of the region is adequately maintained.

“The nature of the Special Mobility Group is such that it will be capable of carrying out special complex missions like troop insertion and extraction from difficult terrain, medium helicopter transport, search and rescue operations, medical evacuation, land and maritime surveillance,” he said.

He said it is in anticipation of the upsurge in personnel that it became necessary for the Airforce to provide adequate accommodation for them, adding that the accommodation is designed for single officers who only “move from base to base in their cars carrying only briefcases.

“The concept provides for a conducive living accommodation tastefully furnished not only for single officers but for other officers that may be in transit.”

The building, Air Marshal Umar said, was constructed through direct labour. This, he said, is a deliberate effort to cut down on costs that would have been “prohibitive if the project was contracted out “.

Speaking earlier, Air Commodore A. Ogunjobi, the Commander of the 207 Mobility Unit said the establishment of the Mobility Unit in the state is in line with the overall national security imperatives.

“Besides being a state in our southern flank, Cross River State also provides a strategic sea passage into neighbouring Cameroon as well as harbouring an ecosystem with great tourism potential, rightly therefore, the state deserves good NAF presence,” he said.

Air Commodore Ogunjobi said the plot of land on which the single officers’ accommodation is built was given to the Airforce by the Ekorinim community over a decade ago for the development of a MESS but “successive Chief of Air Staff for various reasons were unable to initiate the development but the place has today been put to good use by the present Chief of AirStaff.”

The tape to commission the accommodation was cut by Air Vice Marshal Emmanuel Edem (retd).
By Emma Una/Calabar