Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has faulted the notion held in certain quarters that he plotted the elimination of 159 officers in the ill-fated C-130 Air Crash on September 26, 1992.
According to Babangida in his autobiography titled “A journey in Service” launched on Wednesday in Abuja, such talks spoke volumes of the level of decay to which public perception and discourse had descended in the country at the time.
Babangida, who administered the country between 1985 and 1993, wondered why any group of citizens would blame such a tragic accident on his administration, which had invested so many resources in the training and welfare of the officers and men of the armed forces over the years.
Blaming those he termed “desperate political elite and their followers” for such rumour, he remarked that he looked more to the welfare and entitlements of the deceased officers while taking measures to ensure that such an accident never occurred.
Reminiscing the unfortunate development, he noted: “The Nigerian Air Force Lockheed C-130 H transporter aircraft with manufacturer number 4624 crashed into the swamps off the Lagos coast barely three minutes after taking off from the Ikeja airport.
“A total of 159 souls on board were lost, including the crew and nine foreigners. The aircraft was transporting passengers, primarily officers of the various armed services, from Lagos to Abuja. These were mostly middle-level military officers whose transportation to Abuja had been consolidated to save costs.
“A subsequent accident investigation revealed that the aircraft lost three of its four engines when lifted off with a heavy load. More importantly, the investigations by both the aircraft manufacturers and the Nigerian Air Force established that two significant factors caused the accident. First was poor maintenance.
“The Air Force had in its inventory a number of these C-130 aircraft as the heart of its airlift capability. Most were consolidated and parked at the Ikeja Air Force hanger adjacent to the airport’s presidential wing. As a result of age, some aircraft needed maintenance. As a result of economic difficulties, some cargo aircraft were cannibalised for spares to keep a few of them operational.
“Among the few operational ones, most were due for routine scheduled maintenance, which had not occurred for some time. The ill-fated aircraft was one of the few that were still serviceable. The three engines failed soon after take-off as a result of both fatigue and excessive load.
“Given the sheer number of military officers who lost their lives in the crash and the mid-level rank of most of them, Nigeria had failed in one fell swoop a sizeable number of a generation of officers in this accident.
“Mischief makers and rumour mongers were colouring the public perception of this accident. Some speculated that regime opponents in the armed forces had sabotaged the aircraft to vent their anger at the direction of the administration.
“A more wicked version of the rumour was that the administration had somehow plotted to assemble these officers in one consignment for elimination for fear that they might be planning a coup against the military administration’s leadership based on the failed Gideon Orkar coup that had taken place earlier.
“It was not until after the accident investigation team disclosed the report that it was established that the aircraft had crashed purely due to technical faults and oversights by those responsible for ensuring that the fleet was airworthy before embarking on such a trip with so many souls on board.”
