By Sumaila Ogbaje
As part of activities to commemorate its 59th Anniversary, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Tuesday, conducted medical outreach to over 1000 women, children and elderly persons in Biseni Local Government Area of Bayelsa.
The Public Relations Officer, NAF Mobility Command, Sqn.Ldr. Olayinka Lawal, made this known in a statement on Tuesday.
Lawal said the services rendered by the NAF medical team included free medical consultations, blood pressure checks as well as eye and blood screenings.
He added that drugs, corrective glasses and insecticide-treated mosquito nets were also distributed during the outreach.
The Air Officer Commanding Mobility Command, AVM Elijah Ebiowe, said that NAF would continue to employ other non-kinetic measures to win the hearts and minds of its host communities.
The commander, who was represented by the Command Operations Officer, Air Commodore Friday Ekpah, stated that NAF had been extending such kind gesture to the people of Bayelsa.
According to him, the NAF has since 2012 been at the forefront of airlifting relief materials and evacuation of victims of flood disasters in the state.
This, according to him, is in addition to working in concert with other security agencies and the state government to guarantee the safety of lives and property in the entire state.
Ebiowe added that NAF had made several gains in the various theatres of operations across the country, to bring lasting peace and security to all.
He added that the medical outreach was designed as a civil-military cooperation effort, to win the hearts and minds of residents of the host communities.
According to him, it is also for them to know that the military is not all about guns and violence, so that they can volunteer information to security agencies in the quest to secure lives and property.
In his remarks, the Commissioner of Health, Bayelsa State, Dr Pabara Igwele, expressed delight that NAF conducted that kind of non-kinetic operation in Biseni community.
According to him, this is not the first time the NAF will be conducting an outreach such as this in the state, it has been at the forefront of providing humanitarian assistance to the State whenever the need arises.
“I am happy to recount that the Nigerian Air Force has a long history of providing humanitarian assistance to the State whenever the need arises.
“One such assistance was a similar medical outreach to the one we are having today which was conducted at Gbarantoru Community on May 18, 2021.
“The outreach, in no small measure, helped to ameliorate the health challenges in the community at the time”, he added.
