Agriculture Minister Expresses Condolences Over Military Air Crash

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has commiserated with President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Air Force over the crash of a Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft near a naval base in Igbokoda, Ondo State.

In a statement he personally issued on Tuesday, Kyari also expressed condolences to the families of the 25 passengers and seven crew members who reportedly died in the crash.

The minister extended his sympathies to the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, as well as officers, airmen and airwomen of the Nigerian Air Force.

“I pray that Almighty God grants the bereaved families the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss and that the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace,” Kyari said.

PUNCH Online reports that a military aircraft that crashed on Monday had disappeared from radar shortly after take-off, according to a senior Air Traffic Controller familiar with the aircraft’s final journey.

The aircraft, with tail number NGR 931, was travelling from Benin City, the Edo State capital, to Lagos when air traffic controllers lost contact with it at about 9:13 am, before it crashed into a swamp in Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area in Ondo State.