Arotile’s sister asks air force to probe her death

The family of Tolulope Arotile, the first female combat helicopter pilot of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF), has demanded a probe on her death.

In an interview with PUNCH, Damilola Adegboye, her immediate elder sister, said the family is not convinced with NAF’s explanation that she died in a freak accident.

Arotile was said to have died when a former classmate knocked her down while she was running to great her at the Kaduna air force base.

Adegboye, however, said the family is demanding a thorough investigation into the late officer’s death.

“We in the family are not convinced that Tolu can just die like that in a freak accident,” she was quoted as saying. 

“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.”

She recalled that they were together when Arotile received a call from someone that is likely a senior colleague and reluctantly left for the base as instructed.

“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 Air force base. She felt reluctant and I offered to drop her off,” she said.

“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.”