By George Mgbeleke<\/p>\n
Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed cynicism that the probe into the military helicopter crash that happened in Ilaje, Ondo State in which 35 Nigerians perished including school children ordered by President Tinubu would be transparent and accountable given previous records of lack of disclosures of findings from similar investigations. <\/p>\n
President Bola Tinubu had ordered an investigation into the Nigerian Air Force aircraft crash in Ondo State, just as he declared three days of national mourning. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chief of Air Staff has briefed me, and I have directed the Nigerian Air Force to immediately commence a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash to prevent future occurrences,\u201d Tinubu said in a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.<\/p>\n
The President also expressed condolences to the families of the 25 passengers and seven crew members aboard the aircraft and prayed for the repose of the souls of the officers.
\n \u201cThis is a painful moment for our Armed Forces and for the entire nation. Our Air Force personnel put their lives on the line every day to secure Nigeria. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,\u201d he said.
\nTinubu prayed \u201cfor the repose of the souls of the gallant officers and for Almighty God to grant their families and the Nigerian Air Force the fortitude to bear the unfortunate loss.\u201d
\nThe President confirmed fatalities in the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) ATR-42 aircraft crash in Igbokoda, Ondo State, although the Air Force is yet to disclose the number of people killed.
\nHe said the aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos when the accident occurred, while commending the NAF for activating an immediate search and rescue operation.<\/p>\n
HURIWA however dismissed the presidential order as mere media gimmicks to put up an impression of a government that is concerned about the tragic incident just as the civil society organisation stated that repeated failures of past investigations to be unveiled to the public and the failures of the hierachy of the Nigerian armed forces to implement measures to prevent continuous crashes of military air crafts, demonstrate that Nigerian government is just playing on the gullibility of most Nigerians in giving that empty-handed directive which would not see the light of the day like so many others in the past. <\/p>\n
In a media statement, HURIWA raises the question of why nothing concrete was done to check these frequent military aircrafts accidents even as the Rights group averred that between 2015 and 2023, Nigeria under the then President, Major General, Muhammadu Buhari (retd), suffered a total of 14 military air crashes, resulting in the loss of 15 aircraft.<\/p>\n
The crashes during the period under review killed no fewer than 33 military personnel, while the whereabouts of two personnel are still unknown.<\/p>\n
The cause of the incidents have not been made public, despite assurances by Nigerian Air Force and the Federal government. <\/p>\n
In February 2023, the Air Force was fortunate not to have recorded a crash after one of their jets lost its tyre mid-air and made an emergency landing at Lagos Airport on its belly.
\nBetween February 22, 2021 and April 19, 2022, no fewer than 20 military personnel lost their lives in the ill-fated crashes.
\nOn February 22, 2021, seven NAF personnel on their way from Abuja to Minna, Niger State to rescue the abducted students and workers of Government Science College, Kagara, died when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled too that on March 31, 2021, former NAF spokesperson, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, confirmed an aircraft crash and the whereabouts of the two pilots.<\/p>\n
The most prominent of the crashes happened on May 21, 2021. A military Beachcraft 350 aircraft crashed at the Kaduna International Airport, killing the 11 people onboard, including the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru.
\nOn July 18, 2021, another Alpha Jet Aircraft crashed in Zamfara after it was shot down by bandits. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo, escaped from the crashed aircraft.<\/p>\n
In April 2022, a trainer aircraft crashed in Kaduna, killing two pilots on board.
\nOther crashes are the August 29, 2015, Air Force plane crash in Kaduna which killed seven persons out of which four were military personnel.<\/p>\n
The Rights group asserted that in another incident on October 10, 2015, an F-7Nl jet crashed and claimed one life. Also, an Augusta Westland 101 helicopter crashed in Makurdi, Benue State on November 15, 2016
\nOn July 6, 2017, a NAF Agusta 109 Light Utility Helicopter crashed in Borno River. There were no casualties.
\nTwo F-7Ni aircraft crashed around Katampe Hills in Abuja, on September 28, 2018. The airplanes collided with each other during a rehearsal for Nigeria\u2019s 58th independence anniversary celebration. One person died in the crash.
\nOn January 2, 2019, five crew members were killed on NAF Mi-35 were killed when the aircraft crashed near Damasak, Borno State.
\nAlso, a NAF helicopter crashed while landing in Katsina State, on June 12, 2019. No life was lost in the crash.
\nSimilarly, on August 17, 2019, a NAF aircraft RV-6A Air Beetle crashed near Kaduna, killing the pilot, an experienced instructor.
\nThe crash at the NAF base in Enugu involved a training helicopter. The incident happened on November 14, 2019. No life was lost to the incident.<\/p>\n
HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko lamented that the Federal Government has failed to put an end to these cocktails of Air accidents which are substantially avoidable or can be minimised if procurement and maintenance corruption are eradicated. <\/p>\n
HURIWA is therefore tasking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to focus more on finding out why all other previous military air accidents were never comprehensively and transparently investigated and the reports published for Nigerians to read and know exactly the remote and immediate causes of such accidents that have killed a lot of our citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed cynicism that the probe into the military helicopter crash that happened in Ilaje, Ondo State in which 35 Nigerians perished including school children ordered by President Tinubu would be transparent and accountable given previous records of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18260,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18259\/revisions\/18260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}