Flying Officer and Nigeria’s first female Combatant Helicopter pilot Tolulope Oluwatoyin Sarah father, Mr. Akintunde Arotile, says he spoke with her few hours before her sudden death.
According to a statement from the Nigerian Air Force Tolulope Arotile died on Tuesday at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of a former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her.
Mr.Arotile told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Wednesday that he was shocked to receive the news of her death few hours after he spoke with her.
He said
“Just yesterday [Tuesday] at about 1 p.m., I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina,” he said.
“They gave them one week to rest and so she was sleeping and told me she was in bed resting, she said she will later go out to make some photocopies.
“I told her not to be long and to return home on time because she was staying with my first daughter in Kaduna.
“Around 5.30 p.m, somebody called me and asked if I had called her today and I said yes, then the person told me to call her which I did, but no response.
“So, I called her colleagues, and they were all crying on phone, I asked what happened, they were just crying, so I called one of her bosses who told me that she is in the mortuary.
”I said ha!, Somebody I spoke with 4 hours ago and by 5 p.m. she was in the mortuary.”
“i drove from Abuja to Lokoja to break the sad news to her mother.
”This is to enable me inform her mother physically because I could not break such news on phone, but when I came she had gone to the prayer mountain,” he recalled.
”She came back around 8.30 p.m, I told her this is what I heard but that I had not confirmed.
”Right from day one, she had been very very intelligent, sometimes, I wonder what type of IQ she had,” he said.
”She also combined intelligence with hard-work. She has not just been brilliant but wonderful.
”One day when she was very small, she pointed to one small aircraft parked on the field and said, Dad, one day I am going to fly that aircraft and I said Amen.
” So from that day, she started working towards that, she got admission to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, she had a Bachelors degree in Mathematics, she became an Airforce Cadet, from there, she was sent on several courses abroad and became a pilot.
“I just thank God that she was able to achieve her life dream as a baby before her death.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the passing of Tolulope Arotile, and condoled with her family on the loss of such a promising officer.
(C) Control TV 2020.
