Presidential candidate faults hiring of private chopper for Osinbajo’s trip

Babatunde Ositelu, presidential candidate of the Accord Party (AP), says the circumstances that led to the use of hired helicopter by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo should be probed and explained to the public.

On Saturday, a hired chopper carrying Osinbajo and members of his team crash-landed in Kabba, Kogi state where they had gone to campaign.

In a statement on Sunday, while congratulating Osinbajo and his team as well as the crew of the crashed chopper for coming out unscathed, Ositelu said the incident must be probed and the outcome made public in order to ensure that there is no repeat of such accident.

“The circumstances that led to the use of a hired helicopter must also be explained to the Nigerian tax payers since it is in the public knowledge that the country has a number of aeroplanes made up of Jets and Helicopters in the Presidential fleet being managed by the Nigerian Air force (NAF),” he said.

“It is imperative to come public with such explanation because of the subdued rumour that a certain cabal might have made it difficult for the Vice President to have unmitigated access to the use of the aircrafts in the Presidential fleet.”

Ositelu also expressed worries over the scenario at the site of the crash site. According to him, the rowdy and uncoordinated approach to the rescue effort was bereft of professionalism that should have been accorded the office of the number two man in the country.

He said from the video of the crash trending, it was obvious that first responders were absent to give immediate succour to the victims of the crashed chopper.

He added that there were no fire fighters, ambulances and health workers among others to support the rescue efforts.

Ositelu said that the video only depicted a motley crowd running riot, while some others were just shouting, screaming and others simply using their mobile phone to record the disaster.

He said the area of the crash was not immediately cordoned off to avoid unmitigated disaster, and that too many people rushed to the scene and in such a situation of uncertainty, a third force could have inflicted harm on the vice-president in the flurry of uncontrolled access to the crash scene.

Caverton Helicopters, owners of the aircraft, had blamed the incident on unusual weather condition.