The Minister of Defence, retired Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi, has expressed shock over the death of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) combat helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile.
Mohammad Abdulkadri, Special Assistant Media and Publicity to the Minister, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Magashi lamented the death of the First Female Combat Pilot, who was commissioned into the NAF in 2017 as a member of the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64.
He described her death as the exit of one of the finest and best national manpower asset, adding that the deceased rendered an impactful but short service to the nation.
According to him, the nation should be consoled by the maxim, which says it is not how far but how well that matters in the voyage of life at personal, interpersonal and national levels.
The minister said the death of Arotile had cut short in its prime a robust aspirations and expectations of a brighter and better future of her promising career in the nation’s anals of professional pilot records of service in the Nigerian Air Force.
“We have lost a brave, gallant, courageous and patriotic Nigerian at a time when her service is needed most to upscale the tempo of Counter Terrorism and war against banditry plaguing the nation’s security architecture,” he said.
Magashi, however, sympathised with President Muhammadu Buhari, Kogi State Government, the Nigerian Armed Forces, especially the Nigerian Air Force family.
He also condoled with the family of the late Flying Officer and prayed God to grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.
