Afenifere, a body of Yoruba leaders, has called for a coroner’s inquest into the death of Nigerian Air Force (NAF) pilot, Tolulope Arotile.
Tolu, 24, was Nigeria’s first female combatant pilot.
In an explanation that has triggered reactions, NAF said the officer died “when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her”.
But Afenifere has rejected the claim.
The spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, in a rejoinder said NAF “spewed some untruth” in saying that Tolu died “as a result of head injuries sustained from a road traffic accident at the NAF Base Kaduna.”
“It was only eyewitness accounts that unofficially released that it was a colleague of hers who reversed his car to knock her down on the road.”
The group referred to unofficial accounts that “she just returned from a combat operation before she was knocked down to death”.
Afenifere declared that it does not accept that her death was an accident “until the report of a coroner says how she died and how a supposed attempt to stop and greet could come with a death impact”.
“We say this against what is known of the infiltration of the forces by sympathizers and agents of Boko Haram.”
Afenifere recalled instances where routes and timing of movements of Nigerian troops were leaked to Boko Haram who ambushed them.
It insisted that the inquiry should look “into all the links of the colleague who killed her and we must know the identity.”
Afenifere sympathized with the grieving family “who have been thrown into deep mourning following the killing of their daughter not in combat but within the barracks.”
