NAF hosts safety management seminar in Lagos

The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) as part of its continued programmes to ensure it was at par with its foreign counterparts on Thursday organised a safety management seminar for its officers.

Speaking at the seminar held at the 631 Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Ikeja. Lagos, the  Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, urged the participants to take full advantage of the seminar.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the seminar, ‘Aviation Safety: Panacea for Minimising Aircraft and Armament Maintenance Hazards’ was attended by no fewer than 70 participants.

AVM Olusegun Phillip represented the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar at the seminar. He said that the seminar was to facilitate the unrestricted exchange of ideas by the stakeholders to enhance safety practices in NAF’s aircraft and armament activities.

” I want to urge us today to take advantage of this seminar from the wealth of experience of the speakers. The importance of a safety seminar such as this cannot be over-emphasised in the sense that it provides a platform for stakeholders to give their views on common safety concerns that affect maintenance standard,” he said.

According to him, when there are good maintenance cultures and awareness then safety will be paramount and operation will go on smoothly. He said that NAF would continue to organise such seminars quarterly to refresh its personnel of the importance of safety in their operations in the air and on land.

He added that since the seminar started,  the rate of accidents had reduced and maintenance culture had taken a positive change.

In his welcome address, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Abdulganiyu Olabisi said that the seminar showed the continued commitment of CAS, Air Marshal Abubakar, toward improving the welfare of NAF officers.

The  Vice Marshal he hoped that the officers would derive maximum benefits from the seminar and put what they learned to use. He said that he hoped that the seminar would re-awaken the consciousness of the NAF workforce to reduce hazards in their operations.

The resource persons at the seminar include Retired Air Commodore Rufus Nwafor and Air Commodore Olasunkanmi Abu, the Commander, Central Armament Depot, Makurdi.