Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru has died, alongside other top military personnel and crew members in a plane crash on Friday.
According media reports, the military Beachcraft 350 aircraft crashed at the Kaduna International Airport, leaving no survivors.
Confirming the incident, the Nigerian Army, in a statement signed by the Director of the Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima said the COAS was enroute Kaduna from Abuja when the unfortunate incident happened. The statement also added that details of the incident and burial arrangements will be communicated soon.
At least 17 military officers have lost their lives in the last three months in three crashes involving Nigerian Air Force jets.
On Sunday, February 21, 2021, seven NAF officers died onboard a Beechcraft KingAir B350i aircraft when the jet crashed in Abuja.
Also, on Wednesday, March 31, 2021, NAF spokesman, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, said an Alpha-Jet aircraft involved in the anti-terror war against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province lost radar contact in Borno State.
Two officers were onboard the missing jet which was later declared crashed and the whereabouts of the two airmen unknown till date.
Meanwhile, president Muhammadu Buhari has described the air crash that claimed the life of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and other military officers as “a mortal blow to our underbelly.”
In a statement through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina,
He regretted that the incident happened at a time men of the nation’s armed forces were poised to end the security challenges facing Nigeria.
While consoling the families of the deceased, the military, and Nigerians in general, Buhari described them as heroes who paid the ultimate price for peace and security in the land, pledging that the departed would not die in vain.
