Ibrahim Attahiru was assassinated — David Hundeyin
There is nothing accidental about the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) plane crash that killed late army chief Ibrahim Attahiru, investigative journalist David Hundeyin insinuates.
The chief of army staff (COAS) died alongside 10 others in a NAF aircraft crash in Kaduna on Friday.
A viral video showed an eyewitness saying he saw two men jump off the plane in parachutes moments before it crashed. The men, the eyewitness said, disappeared afterwards. The video is now said to be from 2018.
Investigative journalist David Hundeyin, whose recent reporting drew lines between communications minister Isa Pantami and terrorism, has weighed in on the matter.
Hundeyin, in a series of tweets on Saturday, suggested that there was more to Attahiru’s death than meet the eye.
“If you’ve seen Nigeria’s government up close as I have, you’d know that it pays more attention to taking care of itself than even governing the country,” Hundeyin tweeted.
“A mosquito will find it hard to bite an ordinary permanent secretary in the federal civil service. They’re pampered like eggs.
“So, when I see nonsense like ‘vice president’s helicopter crashed,’ ‘chief of army staff died in a plane crash,’ ‘national security adviser and a state governor died in a helicopter crash,’ I just jump and pass. It’s not my intelligence someone will insult.
“Own your political assassinations and attempted assassinations with your chest abeg. Don’t insult us. Rubbish.
“Because you seriously want me to believe that Dana Air, Arik Air and Air Peace really have a better safety record since 2012 than the presidential air fleet and the air force. Na so.
“Can’t even be creative with the method of assassination. Always the same ‘So and so died in aircraft crash’ thing.
“Nigerian VIPs should kuku start flying Air Peace economy class since, apparently, that is statistically safer than flying on military or presidential aircraft.”
Hundeyin provided no evidence to back hi suspicion. But his tweeted echoed that of many Nigerians who pointed out that Attahiru may have been killed by “the powers that be”.
The crash that killed the late COAS occurred weeks after Attahiru advised lawmakers to investigate his predecessors if they wanted to know how the huge amounts of money earmarked for procuring weapons were spent.
The lawmakers had summoned the late chief of staff over the rising spate of insecurity in the country despite huge military spending under former COAS Tukur Buratai and those who came before him.
Although Attahiru did not name anyone in his reponse, he did suggest that past military leaders would be in the best position to explain how those funds were spent.
House speaker Femi Gbajabiamila also recently urged the Muhammadu Buhari government to give Attahiru and the other service chiefs more money to buy more weapons in other to boost Nigeria’s war on Boko Haram terrorists and bandits.
