An aircraft recently released from the Presidential fleet and handed over to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has crashed in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
An insider at the NAF Base in Makurdi told The AUTHORITY that the helicopter, Augusta AW101, landed first at the Military Air Base situated on Kilometre 6 on the Makurdi-Gboko Road.
He said that it was not a major crash, adding that “what happened was that the helicopter had landed but suddenly moved up and tumbled. ‘‘
It was gathered that only the flight engineer was on board and did not sustain any serious injury.
When contacted, the Air Force Public Relations Officer, Makurdi, Okon Bassey, feigned ignorance of the incident. He said that he was on a course in Lagos and promised to send the contact number of his assistant.
The assistant, who simply identified himself as Gambo, said that nothing like that happened at the NAF Base.
“It is a rumour, many people have been disturbing us concerning this thing but I can confirm to you that nothing like that happened,” he said.
