By Aliyu DANLADI
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, says the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) will introduce mandatory fitness test for its personnel in 2019 to improve their physical fitness and mental alertness.
Abubakar, disclosed this during the closing ceremony of the NAF Sports Competition at the 053 its Camp Base, Abuja on Wednesday.
He said importance of physical fitness could not be overemphasised, adding that fitness test would be conducted three times weekly for the personnel commencing from 2019.
“There is a new development in NAF, that is the issue of body fitness to instill body fitness in 2019,
“Next year it will not only be Wednesday Sports, but it will be three times a week to instill fitness in the Service,” he said.
The CAS who was represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans, AVM Muhammed Mohammed said sporting activities were important to the service and the country at large.
He said by doing this, the medical bills of the service would be greatly reduced.
He warned that any personnel found wanting would be handed over to the NAF Sports Directorate with specific task to improve.
While commending the participants, Abubaka said the competition was an avenue to harvest potential sportsmen and women to represent NAF in national sports competitions.
Earlier, Chief of Administration, Headquarters, AVM Kingsley Lar, said the objective of the event was to reinvigorate sporting activities among personnel to improve their physical and mental alertness.
He stressed that physical fitness for personnel was dear to the chief of air staff.
Lar said the closing ceremony marked a climax of events which began in September running through October.
He added that the aim of the competition was to also identify sportsmanship, following the directives of the CAS.
The highlight of the occasion was the novelty match between Team National Youth Service Corps and Regimental Sergeant Majors (RSM).
There was exhibition of tug of war between Air Warrant Officers (AWO) and athletics where both men and women participated in various categories of combat races.
The competition saw Team Delta emerging as the overall winner with 740 cumulative points, followed by Team Charlie with 500 points, Team Bravo with 375 points and Team Alpha with 365 points respectively.
