By TINA TIMOTHY

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa OFR, has sponsored a 5-day training of 22 Defence Headquarters (DHQ) officers in Archery to enhance their confidence and skills in the game of Archery and marksmanship, from Monday, July 22 to Friday July 26, 2024 in Abuja.

Captain Lurwanu Abdulkadir of the Nigerian Navy on behalf of the Acting Director, Defence Information in a statement issued on Monday, July 22, 2024, disclosed that the Director of Maritime at the Defence Research and Development Bureau, Abuja, Rear Admiral SD El-Ladan and the Chief of Defence Communications, Major General SY Bashir amongst others are participants.

The statement read: "The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa OFR has sponsored the training of 22 Defence Headquarters (DHQ) officers and men in Archery to enhance their confidence and skills in the game of Archery as well as their marksmanship skills for shooting.

“The DHQ Archery training which commenced on Monday, 22 July 2024 at Ach Club Range Unique Gardens, Accra Street, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja is expected to end on Friday, 26 July 2024.”

According to the statement, Major General Bashir expressed joy that the first day of the training was a huge success and consequently urged all the participants to take the training seriously as it will enormously improve their aiming and shooting skills.

“Speaking at the beginning of the training, Major General SY Bashir – the Chief of Defence Communications who was also one of the participants explained the similarities in safety rules in Archery and that of shooting rules. He further said that Archery skills can be applied in shooting a gun especially aiming, taking a shot and follow through. He added that all these activities can improve marksmanship skills of a personnel. He urged all the personnel to take the training seriously.

“Notably, The Day One training commenced with Introduction to General Archery. The session dwelled on brief history of archery, overview of the archery equipment, equipment setup and range safety. Others included brief on the different types of aiming in Archery, technical demonstration on traditional archery with focus on anchor points, Foot Positioning and achieving consistency. Thereafter, shooting session was introduced with splitting trainees into 2 teams (Alpha and Bravo). The Day One training was a huge success as all the participants performed excellently well with a practical shooting in 5 meters range shooting/practice. This shows that the participants had full understanding of the Archery basics.

“Amongst the personnel that attended was also Rear Admiral SD El-Ladan, the Director of Maritime at the Defence Research and Development Bureau, Abuja,” the statement read.

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