NAF Plane Crash: HURIWA Dismisses Presidential Investigation

A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has dismissed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s order of investigation of the crash of NAF 931 plane in Igbokoda area of Ondo State.

The group expressed cynicism that the probe into the military crash in which 25 Nigerians perished including school children ordered by Tinubu would be transparent and accountable given previous records of lack of disclosures of findings from similar investigations.

Tinubu had ordered an investigation into the Nigerian Air Force aircraft crash in Ondo State, just as he declared three days of national mourning.

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,”

The group said repeated failures of past investigations to be unveiled to the public and “the failures of the hierarchy 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.”

HURIWA also raised 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 Muhammadu Buhari suffered a total of 14 military air crashes, resulting in the loss of 15 aircraft.

According to the group, the crashes during the period under review killed no fewer than 33 military personnel, while the whereabouts of two personnel are still unknown.

“The cause of the incidents have not been made public, despite assurances by Nigerian Air Force and the Federal government.”

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.
Between February 22, 2021 and April 19, 2022, no fewer than 20 military personnel lost their lives in the ill-fated crashes.
On 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.

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.

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.
On 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.

In April 2022, a trainer aircraft crashed in Kaduna, killing two pilots on board.
Other crashes are the August 29, 2015, Air Force plane crash in Kaduna which killed seven persons out of which four were military personnel.

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
On July 6, 2017, a NAF Agusta 109 Light Utility Helicopter crashed in Borno River. There were no casualties.
Two F-7Ni aircraft crashed around Katampe Hills in Abuja, on September 28, 2018. The airplanes collided with each other during a rehearsal for Nigeria’s 58th independence anniversary celebration. One person died in the crash.
On January 2, 2019, five crew members were killed on NAF Mi-35 when the aircraft crashed near Damasak, Borno State.
Also, a NAF helicopter crashed while landing in Katsina State, on June 12, 2019. No life was lost in the crash.
Similarly, on August 17, 2019, a NAF aircraft RV-6A Air Beetle crashed near Kaduna, killing the pilot, an experienced instructor.
The 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.

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.

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.