God saved our communities that this aircraft did not crash inside Igbokoda township or its busy market. On 26th September, 1992, a Nigerian Air Force aircraft crashed into a swamp near Ejigbo, Lagos, killing 159 people aboard. Now, 25 people reportedly killed in the Igbokoda crash. They were someone’s children, parents, siblings and the future hopes of some families waiting for them to return home.
Sometimes, the Nigerian attitude to tragedies makes me wonder whether we feel anything when the victims are not people close to us. We exclaim and appear to mourn briefly and move on. But these victims did not come from Pluto. We must put ourselves in the position of the bereaved. It can never be easy. Some families can never recover. Some lives can never be the same again.
Please listen carefully to this heartbreaking testimony from the brother of one of the deceased Air Force personnel. His account raises disturbing allegations about a technical fault that reportedly forced the aircraft to stop in Benin before its final flight.
If this account is true, who authorised the aircraft to continue flying? Who certified it airworthy? Were there previous reports of defects? Why were civilians aboard?
The Nigerian Air Force reportedly described the flight as a “routine mission.” But a mission may be routine in purpose and still be negligent in preparation or execution. Calling it routine does not establish that the aircraft was safe to fly.
We demand an independent investigation because if we continue to allow tragedies to pass without demanding answers, those who sit over affairs causing these fatalities will always see the calamities as routine deaths. But they are not. These are preventable, they are avertable.
Twenty-five lives! Twenty-five families and many more loved ones left grieving. We must demand answers. We must insist on accountability. We must stop treating preventable tragedies as our national routine.
Tope Temokun
October 14, 2026.
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