Nigeria’s first female combat pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile is dead. She died at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Base in Kaduna State, Nigeria on Tuesday.
24-year-old Tolulope was said to have been hit by a car driven by a former classmate who wanted to greet her.
The unnamed ex-classmate was reportedly reversing the car when it hit Arotile who fell and hit her head on the tarmac.
Tolulope thereafter died while receiving treatment at the hospital where she was taken to.
NAF Director of Public Relations and Information Air Com. Ibikunle Daramola revealed this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
It stated, “Flying Officer Arotile died on July 14, 2020 at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her.
“Before her untimely death, Flying Officer Arotile made significant and outstanding contributions to the war against terrorism, armed banditry and other forms of criminality in the country, flying several combat missions.”
Daramola explained that Arotile joined the Nigerian Air Force out of passion for the job.
Born on December 13, 1995 to the family of Mr and Mrs Akintunde Arotile in Kaduna, Arotile hailed from Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.