Investigate Arotile’s death – sister tells Nigerian Air Force

Damilola Adegboye, the immediate elder sister of the late first female combat helicopter pilot in the history of Nigerian Air Force, Tolulope Arotile, has called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.

Adegboye in an interview with The PUNCH on Thursday said the family is devastated by the untimely death wondering how the reverse of a vehicle could kill a person in such manner..

Arotile died as a result of head injuries sustained from a road traffic accident at NAF Base in Kaduna State.

Adegboye said, “We in the family are not convinced that Tolu can just die like that in a freak accident. I know that the military is well trained in the art of investigation, we want them to carry out a thorough investigation that can convince us beyond all doubts that the incident that led to her death was real.”

She said on the day of the incident, Arotile and herself were in the room where she was sleeping

“A call came into her phone which she picked but from the way they spoke, I knew the caller must be a senior officer calling her to come to Airforce base. She felt reluctant and I offered to drop her off.

“One hour later, I read online that something serious had happened to her. I couldn’t believe that somebody I just dropped off is dead,” she explained.

Also speaking, the mother of Arotile went down memory lane about how she gave birth to her describing her as a special child adding that fasting and prayer was her hobby.

Meanwhile the Kogi State House of Assembly has called on the state government to immortalise her.


The call was contained in a motion moved by the member representing Ijumu Constituency, Kilani Olumo, at plenary on Thursday.

Olumo said the deceased pilot had contributed her quota to the ongoing fight against insecurity in the country.

He noted that her death is painful and a great loss to the state, pointing out that immortalising her is a reward for her hard work and dedication to the protection of the nation’s territorial integrity.

Seconding the motion, the member representing Lokoja One Constituency, Umar Tenimu described the motion as timely in view of the efforts of the late combat pilot to the nation’s security efforts.

The Speaker, Matthew Kolawole, in his ruling, called on the state government to urgently immortalise the young icon.

A minute silence was observed in honour of the late first female combatant helicopter pilot.

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