Tolulope Arotile,bold,beautiful,genius, the first-ever female combat helicopter pilot in Nigeria history, is dead. She died mysteriously at a tender age of 23.
According to the report, Flying Officer, Arotile died as a result of head injuries sustained from a road traffic accident at Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Base Kaduna.
Her death came barely a year after she was winged as a combat helicopter pilot in the Air Force following the completion of her course in South Africa.
The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said until her death, Flying Officer Arotile, who was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member of Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64, was the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service.
He said: “During her short but impactful stay in the service, late Arotile, who hails from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, contributed significantly to the efforts to rid the North Central States of armed bandits and other criminal elements by flying several combat missions under Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, Niger State.
“The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, on behalf officers, airmen, airwomen and civilian staff of the NAF, commiserates with the family of late Flying Officer Arotile over this irreparable loss. We pray that the Almighty God grant her soul eternal rest.”
The question that goes on in the mind of right thinking hum&n being has been asked by Damilola Adegboye, the immediate elder sister of Tolulope Arotile,who narrated that on the day of the incident, she and Arotile were sleeping in a room before she received a call.
“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.
“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.”