Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, stated this during his operational visit to the state when he met with the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, noting that the poor power supply was also frustrating the activities of the Air Force Comprehensive School, Airport area, Ibadan.
The Nigerian Air Force has been unable to operate a military base at the Ibadan Airport, Oyo State, because of the poor state of facilities including epileptic power supply and absence of other key infrastructure.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, stated this during his operational visit to the state when he met with the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, noting that the poor power supply was also frustrating the activities of the Air Force Comprehensive School, Airport area, Ibadan.
The NAF presently has bases in Lagos State and Ipetu-Ijesha, Osun State – a representation which is grossly inadequate for the South-West region.
The CAS conducted an assessment tour of facilities at the AFCS, lamenting that because of its remote location, the facility was yet to be connected to a reliable power source.
Abubakar said, “The service intends to further expand its presence in the South-West geopolitical zone because at present it only has units in Lagos and Ipetu-Ijesha while the unit in Ibadan is inadequate to meet the air power requirements of the service for the zone.
“We intend to key into the airport upgrade project to expand presence in Ibadan by building a new base along with necessary support facilities so as to have an alternate base for the C-130H fleet to operate from.
“We are interested in keying into the airport expansion plan so that we can have Ibadan as another base for the C-130H aircraft that we operate in Lagos so that when we have any problem, we don’t have to fly from Lagos.
“The AFSC emerged as the overall best public secondary school in Nigeria in the last West African Examination Council examinations. But the school needs to be connected to a reliable mains poweMakinder supply.”
Oyo State governorunwayr, ,lconfirmed the erratic power supply to the AFCS, promising the military that the would be expanded and refueling facilities erected to bring the airport to international standard and make it more economically viable for commercial air operations.”
The governor directed the state's Ministry of Works to look into how to resolve the power connection and supply problems.