Igbokoda Air Disaster: Sowore Questions Crash Investigation, Calls For Outside Experts

African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has called for an independent investigation into the Nigerian Air Force aircraft crash in Igbokoda, Ondo State, arguing that personnel responsible for aircraft maintenance and procurement should not be solely responsible for investigating the incident.

The crash involved a Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft with registration number NAF 931, which went down in Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area, on October 5 while reportedly undertaking a routine mission from Benin City, Edo State, to Lagos.

The Nigerian Air Force confirmed that all 25 people aboard the aircraft, comprising five crew members and 20 passengers, died in the incident.

According to Bush Radio Academy, Sowore made his position known in a post on his X account on Saturday after visiting the crash site on Friday.

The activist and politician questioned the handling of the crash site and the aircraft wreckage, warning that any failure to follow established investigative procedures could make it difficult to determine the actual cause of the tragedy.

He maintained that an independent team of qualified aviation experts should recover and examine all parts of the aircraft as part of a thorough investigation.

Sowore argued that those responsible for aircraft maintenance and procurement should not lead an investigation into a crash that could potentially involve issues connected to their own areas of responsibility. He called for external experts to be brought in to ensure the process is independent and credible.

“Those who are responsible for maintenance, procurements should not be the ones investigating what happened. We should bring outsiders,” he said.

He further stressed that a proper aircraft crash investigation requires the recovery and careful examination of the wreckage, with experts assessing the components to establish what went wrong.

“That’s not how to investigate accidents. How it is done all over the world is that every part of that aircraft must be retrieved and pinned back together by experts because if there had been a bomb blast, how would we know?” he added.

Sowore also expressed concern over what he considered an insufficient focus on the victims and the loss of lives, insisting that the incident should not be treated as an ordinary occurrence.

“Something went wrong, and it’s fundamental. And we are just looking at this and saying, oh, they have visited. No, it’s not a matter of the visitors. It’s a matter of the passengers. People died,” he said.

His comments have renewed calls for transparency and accountability in the investigation into the crash. However, the cause of the incident has not been established in the information provided, and a comprehensive technical investigation would be required to determine the circumstances that led to the aircraft going down.