Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State says no survivor has been found yet after a Nigerian Air Force aircraft crashed in the Igbokoda area of the Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.

The governor said this on Monday hours after the incident, disclosing that residents, emergency responders and security personnel searched the crash site but have yet to find anyone alive.

“No survivors yet from the information I’ve gotten from the people in there,” Aiyedatiwa said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today. “I’ve not been able to speak to the Naval captain who is leading the base, but my security advisor got in contact with the Amotekun leader in the local government and the local government chairman. From all indications, there are no survivors yet that we can record.”

Twenty-five crew members and seven passengers were aboard the aircraft, which was on a “routine mission” from Benin City in Edo State to Lagos when it went down at Igbokoda in Ondo State shortly after 9:00 am (0800 GMT).

A video circulating on social media showed a small crowd gathered near a river while rescuers searched the area by boat. Dayo Akinte, 39, a firewood hawker who lives about a kilometre (mile) from where the accident occurred, described to AFP hearing a sound she thought was “thunder”, referring to the time she believes the plane went down.

‘There Was No Fire’ 

Narrating how the incident occurred, the Ondo governor said, “They [people in the area] heard the sound like an air tremor – the shaking. There was no fire, nothing, but some people saw the aircraft nose-dive into the swamp area.

“So immediately, the Nigerian Navy men—from the information I got—stayed back a bit so that there wouldn’t be an explosion or fire outbreak. So, when they noticed that it was just an area and they didn’t see any sign of fire, they moved in, trying to see if they could rescue the people.

“Then the local emergency management agency from the local government also tried to move in with residents. Then the Amotekun base at Ilaje Local Government also moved in on time to see if they could rescue some of the victims, but from the information we got, no single life was saved up to this moment.

“They could not see any living soul that was in that aircraft, but they saw the ruins, some of the wreckage from the wings of the aircraft, with some ID cards that were retrieved, and then some uniforms. That was when they knew it was a military aircraft.”

The governor said the Nigerian Air Force is “trying to look at the cause” of the fatal incident.

“So it’s a sad situation today, and we’re all really, really aggrieved as Nigerians. And also, it happened in my own state—not just my state, even in my own local government where I’m from,” he said.

“So everybody has been mourning what happened to Nigerian military officers who signed up to protect the territorial integrity of our country and are involved in such accidents. It is so painful.”

In an earlier statement by Ebenezer Adeniyan, his Chief Press Secretary, Aiyedatiwa expressed his “heartfelt sympathy to the Chief of Air Staff, the entire Nigerian Air Force family, and the families of all personnel and passengers on board the ill-fated aircraft. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this difficult time.” Channels TV