Following the emtional complaints made by the family of late Nigerian Air Force (NAF) combat helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, through her elder sister, Mrs Damilola Adegboye, that there was something fishy about her death and that her death should be investigated, Nigerian Air Force authorities have said that investigations have commenced into circumstances surrounding her death.
It was gathered that two persons have been arrested and detained in Kaduna in connection to the death while Provost Officers are working to unveil the conversations Tolulope had on her phone on the day of her death.
It should be recalled that Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile was said to have died in a road accident that involved a former school mate.
NAF said Tolulope sustained head injuries from the accident when she was “inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force secondary school classmate, while trying to greet her.”
However, her sister, Mrs Damilola Adegboye disclosed in an interview that the explanation given by NAF about Flying Officer Arotile’s death was not tenable enough.
NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola said that after the investigation, “whatever information needs to go out will go out”.
He added: “It is standard practice. So, we are investigating the circumstances leading to her death by a road traffic accident. It is an investigation. It may go beyond NAF.”
Tolulope Arotile, a member of the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64, hailed from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State and contributed her quota to the efforts to save the North-Central states from bandits and other criminal elements by flying combat missions.
