From Azzazi to Attahiru: COAS crash adds to growing list of military mysterious mishaps

By Abdul Seye

Hours after the deadly crash that killed the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 others on Friday in Kaduna State, the slow pace of information is fuelling conspiracy theories.

In less than 5 months, the Nigerian military has recorded about 4 different air tragedies that leave Nigerians with more questions than answers. Often time, investigations by the authority are not disclosed.

On the 21st of February, a military aircraft, King Air 350 crashed in Abuja from Minna, Niger State, killing 7 personnel onboard. According to reports, the aircraft experienced engine failure just before the runway.

Less than two months after, Alpha Jet aircraft of the Nigerian Air Force went off the radar, with Boko Haram claiming responsibility for shooting down the fighter jet. The insurgents, who had in series of videos, said they have the debris of the jet, including the bodies of the two flight pilot, Flight Lieutenant Ebiakpo Chapele and Flight Lieutenant John Abolarinwa.

The government is yet to get an update on the status of the jet, the crew, the cause of the crash and those responsible.

On April 26th, scores of soldiers were killed in Mainok, Borno state when an Air force jet mistakenly bombed a military formation. While the government promised to investigate the mishap, nothing has happened, so far not to public knowledge.

During the Ali Pantami scandal, a document went viral, alleging to be a minute of a meeting presided over by Pantami, with a resolution to kill former Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa.

Yakowa died alongside Gen Andrew Azazi, a former National Security Adviser when their helicopter burst into flames mid-air over Okoroba in Bayelsa State. Although the authority said it investigated with an interim verdict of either “human error or material fault caused the crash.

Commodore Kabiru Aliyu, the then spokesperson, had said more information would be disclosed to the general public when the forensic investigation was conducted.

A full report of the investigation could have helped to douse tension. It took the intervention of the Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, John Hayab, who served as an aide to Yakowa to douse the tension.

Another tragic and mysterious death would be the case of Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat pilot. The circumstances of her death still elicit strong argument on social media.

According to the report by the Air Force, Arotile, 24, died from the blunt force caused by a vehicle in reverse, driven by a friend.

This latest crash is coming in the wake of the alleged killing of Abubakar Shekau, the dreaded Boko Haram leader by another terror group, ISWAP. Also, the late Lt General, as the Army Chief was in the middle of the war against bandits, who are very strong in Kaduna where the crash happened.

On social media, users sympathetic to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have been celebrating the crash. This could be linked to the operation of the Nigerian Army against Eastern Security Network, ESN, in the Southeast.

None of the non-state actors has claimed to be in any link to the crash, however, judging by the history of the country in investigation, more questions may be springing up.

 

The claim that some of the passengers in the crash that killed the COAS used parachute to escape has been shared multiple times on the microblogging site, Twitter.

Chief among those who put up the video was Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation in Nigeria – although AllNews discovered that he has deleted the Twitter clip. Many of Fani-Kayode’s 990, 000+ Twitter followers and other social media users had of course viewed the video before he brought it down.

 

Speaking in Pidgin English, a man said in the 30-second video published on Voice TV which is now being shared broadly: “The thing happened from up, dem dey up. Na im the aeroplane turn. Dem, dem comot with one parachute. Dem hold am like this. Two of them, dem dey come from up. The aeroplane come turn the mouth come down.

“As him dey come, people dey say, na rider him dey do, na rider him dey do. Na im I say this one don pass rider oo. As he fall, na im the…blow.

“After that, those people dey come lie for that side there, for up there (pointing to a direction). We no know the particular place wey dem lie.”

AllNews established that it was indeed an eyewitness speaking in the aftermath of a crash in Nigeria, but the video being shared is old.

Our discovery

The video is actually from the crash site of an airforce jet in Abuja in September 2018.

An eyewitness said the two occupants of the jets managed to open the safety parachutes and escape while the third person who could not activate his parachute crashed into the bush.

“I saw the two jets flying together at a very low altitude. I thought it was a show of force,” James Ogbu, a civil engineer, who lives near the scene of the crash had said according to US-based The Defense Post.

“Then suddenly I saw three persons in parachutes jumping out of one of the jets while the other jet was just hovering the sky.

“Two parachutes went to one direction while one went down straight and I saw the jet headed for the rocky hill.”

The aircraft was preparing for a display to mark the October 1 Independence celebrations of that year.

The pilot flying the jet died on the spot. Three others were rescued.

The video shared at this time has been trimmed – to suit the agenda of the source.

WWW.ovideos.ng, which is 6 minutes 25 seconds can be watched on youtube

Conclusion

The claim that two persons jumped off the plane transporting Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, which crashed in Kaduna State on 21 May 2021, is false.

It is an old video – from three years ago.