ABUJA, Nigeria – The seven members of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) who died in a fatal plane crash on Sunday in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, were close to discovering the location of dozens of students being shot by gunmen from their school was kidnapped in North Central. Nigeria last week, two senior military sources told The Daily Beast.
The crew – led by Flight Captain Haruna Gadzama and Flight Lieutenant Henry Piyo – had been in Minna, the capital of Nigeria, North-Central Niger, for days, and had been instructed to gather intelligence in connection with the attempt. to release 42 people, including 27 students. The group was abducted last Wednesday when gunmen stormed military uniforms at Government Science College in Kagara, killing one student in the process.
Officers received information on Sunday about the location of the kidnappers. According to the two military sources, they quickly flew to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja to complement their Beechcraft KingAir B350i aircraft. They were on their way back to Minna when the NAF said the plane had reported a car outage and crashed when it tried to return to Abuja, killing everyone on board.
“They had an idea of where the students were at the time and were investigating the area when the accident took place,” one of the military sources, a NAF officer, told The Daily Beast. The source added that if the incident had not taken place, he believes the air force officers ‘could have reported the exact location of all those abducted from Kagara school.’
The news of the plane crash has created fear across Nigeria and led to rumors on social media that the plane was deliberately touched by actors who wanted to get rid of the seven officers, who were described by the NAF in a statement as ‘well trained’ and ‘dedicated’ staff. The country’s head of air personnel Isiaka Amao Sunday ordered an “immediate inquiry” to the deaths of the officers, who carried out intelligence-gathering operations throughout the region of northern Nigeria, including the northeast, where ISIS-backed militants operate Boko Haram.
“We must remain calm and wait for the outcome of the military investigation,” said Sirika Hadi, Minister of Aviation, in Nigeria. Tweeted on sunday, appears to be addressing rumors surrounding the cause of the crash. Nigerian authorities are often accused of protecting armed groups affiliated with the Fulani tribe from the predominantly Muslim region of Nigeria, where President Muhammadu Buhari hails from. Most of the officers killed during Sunday’s plane crash were from southern Nigeria, a predominantly Christian region.
“The investigating officers will look into all possible causes of the accident, including foul play,” another military source told The Daily Beast. ‘I’m sure the new head of airline personnel [who was appointed late in January] would like to get to the heart of the matter. ”
This is not the first time that the deaths of experienced NAF officers at the forefront of the fight against dangerous militants have led to an investigation.
Last year, the country’s first female fighter helicopter pilot Tolulope Arotile died as a result of the impact of a vehicle driving backwards, which crashed into her. It was suspected across Nigeria that she had been killed. According to the NAF, Arotile was ‘accidentally’ hit ‘by an excited former classmate of the air force inside the NAF base in the northwestern city of Kaduna while he was trying to greet her’. The 24-year-old had just returned from an operation that returned the army named “Gama Aiki” to the state of Niger, where she was fighting ISIS-backed militants and other criminal gangs, known locally as “bandits”. , was deployed by flying. combat missions. Her last combat mission in northern Nigeria was devastating for the terrorists she targeted.
Like Arotile, the seven NAF staff members killed in the crash on Sunday played a key role in the fight to free northern Nigeria from bandits and jihadists. According to the NAF “in the course of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, [the officers] was in virtually all theaters, including the North East, North West as well as the North Central. “Records show that they flew in one of the NAF’s three Beechcraft King Air 350is, and were undoubtedly some of the most experienced and reliable in the air force, saying that the loss was dealt a major blow.
“The NAF will find it difficult to replace staff based on their training and experience gained over the years,” Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, said in a press release on Monday on behalf of the Chief of Air Staff. Amao said. “The service was nevertheless comforted by the fact that the deceased staff gave their utmost best to serve the country.”