Describing Tuesday’s Nigerian Air Force (NAF) plane crash that claimed two officers as one mishap too many, and following the inconclusive nature of past investigations, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday announced that it is suspecting sabotage of national security by members and sympathisers of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
The main opposition party, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, claimed that there is growing public concern about possible complicity in the country’s numerous unexplained military aircraft crashes in the last seven years: “The disturbing trend is the fact that after each crash, the APC government comes up with a public announcement to investigate the circumstances surrounding the mishap, but typical of the administration, such investigation goes cold”
Ologunaba added: “This pattern gives credence to the strong suspicion among Nigerians that there is complicity or sabotage of our national security architecture, including the Air Force, which is very critical to any meaningful fight against terrorism.”
PDP lamented that in May last year, just 11 months ago, a NAF aircraft crashed around Kaduna International Airport, killing the then Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 other officers.
“Our nation has experienced no fewer than 11 unexplained military air crashes since the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government took over power in 2015.
The PDP demanded a system-wide independent judicial inquiry to conduct an investigation into the remote and immediate causes of these incessant crashes of our military aircraft, especially in the face of worsening terrorism attacks in our country.
“This demand is imperative and consistent with the demands by Nigerians, who have lost faith in the ability of the APC government to conduct a transparent and credible investigation into any matter, particularly those relating to our national security,” the party stated.
Source: guardian.ng