A navy helicopter crashed Saturday in the country’s oil-rich southern
delta, killing Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna state and five other people, in the latest
air disaster to hit Africa’s most populous nation, officials said.
Nigeria’s ruling party said in a statement that the governor of
the central Nigerian state of Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, died in the
helicopter crash in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The People’s
Democratic Party’s statement described Yakowa’s death as a “colossal
loss.”
The statement said the former national security adviser, General
Andrew Azazi, also died in the crash. Azazi was fired in June amid
growing sectarian violence in Nigeria, but maintained close ties with
the government.
Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National
Emergency Management Agency, said four other bodies had been found, but
he could not immediately give their identities.
According to Associated Press, the crash occurred
at about 3:30 p.m. after the navy helicopter took off from the village
of Okoroba in Bayelsa state where officials had gathered to attend the
burial of the father of a presidential aide, said Commodore Kabir Aliyu.
He said that the helicopter was headed for Nigeria’s oil capital of
Port Harcourt when it crashed in the Nembe area of Bayelsa state.
Aviation disasters remain common in Nigeria, despite efforts in recent years to improve air safety.
In October, a plane made a crash landing in central Nigeria. A state governor and five others sustained injuries but survived.
In
June, a Dana Air MD-83 passenger plane crashed into a neighborhood in
the commercial capital of Lagos, killing 153 people onboard and at least
10 people on the ground. It was Nigeria’s worst air crash in nearly two
decades.
In March, a police helicopter carrying a high-ranking
police official crashed in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing
four people.
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