By Henry Umoru
The Senate has postponed its planned two-day National Security Summit, earlier scheduled for Monday, 12th and Tuesday, 13th October, 2026, until further notice.
The upper chamber postponed the summit consequent upon the tragic crash of a Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft in Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area, Ondo State, which claimed the lives of 25 officers and seven crew members on Monday.
In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, the Leader of the Senate and Chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the National Security Summit, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, APC, Ekiti Central, said that a new date for the summit would be communicated in due course, thereby appealing to all the stakeholders “to take note of the national disaster and bear with the Senate during this period of national mourning.”
The Senate had convened the security summit to review the country’s perennial security challenges and propose pragmatic solutions that could guarantee security of lives and property across the federation.
According to Bamidele, the ad hoc committee had already concluded the plan to hold the summit after the completion of zonal public hearings, but the crash of the NAF ATR-42 aircraft suddenly necessitated the postponement of the national security summit on Monday.
President Bola Tinubu consequently declared three days of national mourning in honour of 25 officers and seven crew members of the Nigerian Air Force and directed that the national flags be flown at half-mast nationwide.
The Senate Leader said that against the backdrop of 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.
The Senate also extended its heartfelt condolences “to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR; the Nigerian Armed Forces, particularly the Nigerian Air Force; and the families of the gallant officers and crew members who paid the supreme price in active service to the fatherland.”
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