Father Of Late Combat Pilot Recounts Last Moments With Her

Akintude Arotile, Father of Tolulope, the late first female combat helicopter pilot of the Nigerian Air Force, said he is happy that his daughter’s aspiration of flying an aircraft materialised despite spending a relatively short time in earth.

Arotile, who spoke with NAN, also narrated his encounter with his daughter on her dying day.

Arotile who noted that no word could describe how he felt, recalled how the late Tolulope aspired to have an air service career as a child.

He said he was, at times, baffled by her level of intelligence, adding that she was not only intelligent but hard-working.

The late NAF officer died in an unfortunate accident at the Kaduna air force base on Tuesday.

Arotile, a victim of avoidable mishap, was unwittingly knocked down by a former classmate of hers during which she sustained head injuries.

Arotile recalled how he urged his daughter to “return home on time” when they spoke hours to her demise, not knowing she was never going to be home again.

Also Read: Eight Months After Decoration, Nigeria Loses First Female Combatant Pilot

“Just yesterday,at about 1 pm, I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina (and) they gave them one week to rest,” he said.

“So, she was sleeping and told me she was in bed resting. She said she will later go out to make some photocopies and 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 pm, 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 and I said, ‘this is somebody I spoke with four hours ago and by 5pm she was in the mortuary’.”

He also recalled how his late daughter dreamt about flying an aircraft, saying “she had not just been brilliant but wonderful.”

“One day when she was very small, she pointed to one small aircraft packed on the field and said, ‘dad, one day, I am going to fly that aircraft’ and I said Amen,” he recalled, adding that she started working towards actualising the dream from that day.

“Right from day one she had been very very intelligent. Sometimes, I wonder what type of IQ she had, she also combined intelligence with hard-work. I just thank God that she was able to achieve her dreams as a baby before her death,” Arotile said.