The Senate has postponed its National Security Summit indefinitely following the death of 25 Nigerian Air Force personnel in Monday’s ATR-42 aircraft crash in Igbokoda, Ondo State.
The two-day summit, earlier scheduled for October 12 and 13, was deferred after the Senate resolved to honour the victims during the period of national mourning declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Senate Leader and Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on the National Security Summit, Opeyemi Bamidele, announced the postponement in a statement on Tuesday.
Bamidele said the committee had completed preparations for the summit after concluding zonal public hearings before the crash disrupted the plans.
He said the tragedy necessitated the postponement of the summit until further notice.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu consequently declared three days of national mourning in honour of 25 officers and seven crew members of the Nigeria Air Force and directed that the national flags be flown at half-mast nationwide,” Bamidele said.
“With the declaration of national mourning, the Senate resolved that the national security summit should be deferred till further notice in honour of the victims of the crash.”
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The Senate expressed condolences to Tinubu, the Nigerian Armed Forces, particularly the Nigerian Air Force, and the families of the officers and crew members who died in active service.
It said a new date for the summit would be announced in due course and urged stakeholders to take note of the national tragedy and bear with the Senate during the mourning period.
The ATR-42 aircraft crashed near a naval base in Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area.
The twin-engine turboprop aircraft can carry between 30 and 50 passengers.
A video circulating on social media showed people gathered near a river as rescuers searched the area by boat.
Tinubu said he had directed the Nigerian Air Force to immediately begin a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Dayo Akinte, a 39-year-old firewood hawker who lives about a kilometre from the crash site, told AFP that she heard a sound she initially thought was thunder around the time the aircraft went down.
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