ABUJA, Nigeria – The seven Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel who died in a fatal plane crash in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Sunday, were about to discover the location of dozens of students kidnapped by gunmen from their school in north-central. Nigeria last week, two senior military sources told The Daily Beast.
The crew – led by Flight Lieutenant Haruna Gadzama, the aircraft’s captain, and Flight Lieutenant Henry Piyo, the co-pilot – had spent days gathering intelligence in Minna, the capital of the north-central Nigerian state of Niger. related to efforts to secure the release of 42 people, including 27 students. The group was kidnapped last Wednesday when gunmen in military uniforms raided Government Science College in Kagara, killing a student.
On Sunday, the agents received information about the location of the abductees. According to the two military sources, they quickly flew to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja to refuel their Beechcraft KingAir B350i aircraft. They were on their way back to Minna when the NAF said the plane reported an engine failure and crashed trying to return to Abuja, killing everyone on board.
“They had an idea of where the students were at the time and were preparing to investigate the area when the crash occurred,” one of the military sources, an NAF officer, told The Daily Beast. The source added that had the incident not occurred, he believed that the Air Force officers “would have been able to report the exact location of everyone abducted from the Kagara School.”
The news of the plane crash sparked concern throughout Nigeria and sparked rumors on social media that the plane may have been deliberately touched by actors searching for the seven officers, which the NAF described in a statement as’ well trained ‘and’ dedicated staff. Isiaka Amao, the country’s chief of air force, Sunday ordered an “immediate investigation” to the deaths of the officers who had gathered intelligence across the region of Northern Nigeria, including the Northeast, where ISIS-backed militants and Boko Haram operate.
“We must remain calm and wait for the outcome of the investigation by the military,” said Sirika Hadi, Nigerian Minister of Aviation Tweeted Sunday, apparently to address rumors that swirled around the cause of the crash. Nigerian authorities have often been accused of protecting armed groups affiliated with the Fulani tribe in the predominantly Muslim northern region of Nigeria, where President Muhammadu Buhari is from. Most of the officers killed in Sunday’s plane crash were from southern Nigeria, a predominantly Christian region.
“Investigators will look at every possible cause of the crash, including foul play,” another military source told The Daily Beast. ‘I’m sure the new Chief of the Air Force [who was appointed late in January] want to get to the bottom of it. “
It 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-ever female combat helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, was killed by a reversing vehicle that crashed into her, raising suspicions across Nigeria that she had been murdered. According to the NAF, Arotile was “accidentally hit” by “an agitated former Air Force high school while trying to greet her” at NAF base in the northwestern city of Kaduna. The 24-year-old had just returned from an army operation called “Gama Aiki” in the state of Niger, where she was used to fight ISIS-backed militants and other criminal gangs, locally referred to as “bandits”, by flying combat missions. Her latest combat mission in northern Nigeria was devastating to the terrorists she targeted.
Like Arotile, the seven NAF personnel killed in the crash on Sunday had been key figures in the fight to rid northern Nigeria of bandits and jihadists. According to NAF, “while conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions,[the officers] had operated in almost all theaters, including the Northeast, Northwest and North Central. “Records show that they flew in one of the NAF’s three Beechcraft King Air 350is and were undoubtedly among the most experienced and reliable in the Air Force, who said it took a huge blow from the loss.
“The NAF would find it difficult to replace personnel based on their training and experience gained over the years,” said Ibikunle Daramola, NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, in a press release on behalf of Chief of Air Staff. Amao on Monday. “The service was nevertheless comforted by the fact that the deceased personnel did everything in their power to serve the nation.”