REWIND: How 10 army generals died in Benue air crash in 2006

On Friday, Ibrahim Attahiru, chief of army staff, and 10 other military officers died in an aircraft crash.

They had boarded a Beechcraft 350 aircraft that crashed near the Kaduna international airport.

There were no survivors from the crash and they were all buried at the national military cemetery in the federal capital territory (FCT) on Saturday.

However, the recent incident evoked for some Nigerians, the memory of a similar air crash that killed 10 army generals and three other military officers.

2006 DORNIER 288 CRASH

In September 2006, military officers comprising 10 army generals, a lieutenant-colonel, and two wing commanders were killed when a Dornier 228-212 aircraft, which they were aboard, crashed in Benue state.

The officers were making their way to the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state for a retreat.

The 10 generals and the lieutenant-colonel were part of a presidential committee set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to “reposition the army”.

Obasanjo, who was in Singapore attending annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank at the time, cut short his trip and returned to Nigeria. The former president subsequently declared a three-day national mourning.

However, unlike the Beechcraft incident in Kaduna, three colonels survived the Benue crash.

A.N. Bamali, J.O. Adesunloye, J.O. Agboola, P.M. Haruna, J.T.U. Ahmedu, S.O. Otubu, B. Duniya and S.M. Lemu — all major-generals — died in the crash.

Also, Y.J. Braimah and M.B. Bawa — both brigadier-generals — as well as E.O. Adekunle and O. Balogun, wing commanders, perished in the mishap.

N.A. Mohammed, a lieutenant-colonel, also died in the crash.

O.C. Ajunwa, N.I. Angbazo and A.L. Dusu were the colonels who survived the crash.

‘LOSING 13 OFFICERS WAS A TRYING TIME’

In 2016, Martin-Luther Agwai, a former chief of defence staff, said the death of the officers was a trying time in his military career.

Speaking at an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the demise of the officers, Agwai said the officers would have played a vital role in the security challenges facing the country.

“I can make bold to say that if they were around, maybe some of the challenges that we are facing today wouldn’t have gotten to the level that they reached,” he had said.

“Their death, up till their burial, was one of the most trying, most difficult times I ever had in my career.

“If you remember my military career, I have been involved in Sierra-Leone, Darfur, but all that I saw there did not traumatise me like what happened to these people because these were officers that I knew personally.”

Meanwhile, Detimbir Chia, the 14-year-old boy who discovered the site of the aircraft crash in Benue, went on to join the army.