The President of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Security Studies, (AANIAS), Mike Ejiofor, has called for a broader investigation into military aircraft operations following the October 5, 2026 Nigerian Air Force crash in Ondo State, which killed all 25 people on board—20 passengers and five crew members.
In an interview on Arise News on Wednesday, Ejiofor said the recurring incidents involving military aircraft had become “one too many,” stressing the need to investigate their maintenance, age and general operational condition.
“I think it’s becoming one too many—the incidents of air crashes involving the military. So I think the investigation should go, not the immediate cause of this, that should be looked into, but the frequent crashes of our military aircraft should be looked into.
“What is the state of maintenance of all these aircraft? How long have they been in service? What is the state of aircraft—we can’t continue to have—I think from records, from what I was reading, we’ve had over 10 crashes in the last 10 years. You remember the one that claimed the life of the Chief of Army Staff.
“So we should look into the general operations of the Air Force and look at their— I mean, it’s sad, very, very sad. So the government has taken the right initiative. It’s quite unfortunate, because this is the highest so far in military crashes of a number of casualties that was just recent, which is very sad,” he lamented.
On the discrepancy over the number of people aboard the aircraft, Ejiofor noted that 32 people were initially reported to be on board before the Nigerian Air Force later released a manifest listing 25 people, attributing the conflicting figures to poor record-keeping.
“It goes again to the issue of data keeping. It should have been easier to, or simple, to get the manifest and know the number of people. But you know the way we keep records, my only surprise, there might be more people in the aircraft who were not contained in the manifest.
“So I think that is what is responsible for the disconnect—the Aviation Minister saying a different thing, and the Air Force, the Defense, saying another thing. But I think we should rely more on the manifest of the aircraft if they actually complied with that—the people in the aircraft, their names were contained there in the manifest. And it’s a sad situation that this simple record keeping can just have a conflict.
Ejiofor, who is also a former Director, Department of State Services, (DSS), attributed the difficulty in recovering the wreckage and victims to the difficult terrain at the crash site, while stressing the importance of recovering the aircraft’s black boxes.
“It’s the terrain. The terrain is very bad, and you’ll recall we had a case like that—I think in 2012—involving Dana Air where the aircraft dived into the deep, it was on a swamp, as to speak. So the terrain where this crash took place—and from what people have been saying, even though investigation has not concluded, is that the pilot managed to avoid areas to reduce the number of casualties at the risk of his own life and the life of others.
“So I think as the investigation goes on, we should be able to know what actually happened. But the fear is that, except the black boxes are recovered, the fear is that they lost contact, they lost signals from the aircraft as soon as it took off.”
Speaking on the possible mission of the aircraft, Ejiofor said he doubted it was deployed for reconnaissance, given the number of people reportedly on board, suggesting it may have been used to convey passengers instead.
“I’m not in the Air Force. I don’t know how they operate, but I very much doubt if it was actually on an operation with that number of people if it’s on reconnaissance. If you have those number of people—I’m not ruling out the possibility—from Lagos to Benin to Lagos are not very serious operational areas, if you are talking of somewhere like Niger, Zamfara, in the North. We can say, yes, maybe they went in for an operation.
“But I believe abuse in our country, possibly go and convey these people using the Air Force aircraft to go to this place. Because I understand—we don’t know—I understand there were children inside, so they couldn’t have been on reconnaissance.”
Turning to the search and rescue efforts, Ejiofor said the presence of a naval base and police station near the crash site should have facilitated an immediate response, but noted that the difficult terrain posed a serious challenge.
“I think nobody should be blamed for this, because if you also recall that it’s close to a naval base and police station, so rescue should have been immediate. But the terrain posed a very serious challenge. As we speak, the fuselage of the aircraft and others have not been recovered. So there’s no hope that there’s any life, because body parts were scattered. So it’s quite unfortunate, but let’s wait for the outcome.”
On reports of a deafening sound before the crash, Ejiofor described suggestions of an explosion as speculation, saying only the investigation could determine whether an explosion occurred before impact or the noise resulted from the crash itself.
“For me, these are speculations. It’s possible the impact on crashing caused the deafening noise. But again, if you look at the situation analytically, that body parts were found, it’s also possible that there was an explosion before the impact, which led to disintegration and finding of body parts. So until the investigation is concluded, we can’t be specific on what actually caused whether it was an explosion in the air or the impact on the ground,” he said.
Reacting to the killing of ISWAP leader Abdussamad Ohida, also known as Anwar, in Ondo State, Ejiofor described the development as “very, very significant,” noting his position within the group’s leadership structure.
He said intelligence indicated that the group was planning attacks during the festive period to discourage people from participating in the general elections, adding that the operation may have prevented further loss of lives.
“The killing of Oheda is very, very significant, very significant. If you recall that in Nigerian ISWAP, he’s next to the leader, the Nigerian leader who was arrested by the DSS in 2023 and is still being prosecuted. So it’s very significant.
“Now, the intelligence is that they were planning attacks during the festive period to discourage people from going for general elections, and that would have been massive too, leading to loss of lives. We’ve lost lives, but lives have also been prevented from being lost in this process. So I think we commend our security forces.”
On the intelligence and joint operation involving the DSS, Army and Amotekun, Ejiofor stressed the importance of coordination and synergy among security agencies, saying no single agency should take credit for the success.
Ejiofor also renewed calls for state police, arguing that local security personnel have better knowledge of their communities but require stronger capacity and coordination with federal agencies to tackle emerging threats, particularly ahead of the general elections.
“Coordination, synergy is very, very key in the success of operations. And you can see that all these stakeholders were mentioned. SSS doesn’t want to take the glory alone for them to provide intelligence, then the Army will do the backup, the Amotekun, and all the stakeholders, the Amotekun, the military, and the SSS were mentioned, not one agency taking the glory.
“And that is why I always say that the issue of state police is very, very critical, because they live on the ground, but they don’t have the capacity to deal with the situation. So when they get such information, liaise with these agencies, of course, we achieve results.
“And we must intensify efforts now that we are heading towards general election, because there’s no way we can go into general elections under this security situation, though we are having some improvement in the security challenges we are facing in the country.”
Addressing measures to prevent Ohida’s network from regrouping, Ejiofor said security agencies must intensify intelligence gathering and preventive operations while monitoring political activities ahead of the general elections. He warned that heightened political rhetoric could pose an additional security threat, urging agencies to pay closer attention to political actors alongside existing terrorist threats.
“There has been intensified effort on the part of security agencies in terms of intelligence gathering, in terms of prevention. But I agree that our security agencies have more to do now, especially in terms of intelligence gathering.
“I’m going to emphasize—the political threats is going to be more than what we are facing now, because the politicians have now come out with the issue of do or die, win or you lose, both opposition, people in government, everybody is chanting war songs. So I think our security agencies, apart from the threats of ISWAP and all these people, should intensify on monitoring the activities of politicians.”
On the role of forest guards in securing Nigeria’s reserve forests, Ejiofor questioned their current capacity, saying they require training and stronger support to effectively tackle non-state actors operating in the forests. He again advocated state police as a complementary force to existing security agencies.
“Do they have the capacity? Do they have the capacity? Of course, the answer is obvious, they don’t have. They are just being established, they need to be trained, but the quickest way out of this quagmire is the state police to complement our security agencies. So I think they will do their best, but I don’t think they have the capacity to deal with the situation as it is now.”
Favour Odima
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