By Cynthia Alo
Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has said no survivor has been recovered from Monday’s military aircraft crash in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area of the state, with only wreckage of wings, identity cards and uniforms seen.
Aiyedatiwa said rescue teams are yet to access the main body of the aircraft because it went deep into the swamp.
The governor disclosed this on Monday night during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme.
He said the aircraft, with 32 persons on board, 25 passengers and seven crew members, was a surveillance aircraft on its way from Benin to Lagos, which lost radio signal at about 9:15 a.m.
He said information got to him at about 10:30 a.m. from the chairman of Ilaje Local Government that residents heard a sound like an air tremor before the aircraft dived into a swamp directly facing the Naval Forward Operating Base in Igbokoda.
“They saw the wreckage from the wings, some ID cards and uniforms indicating it was a military aircraft. The main body went deep into the swamp area. They haven’t been able to search the aircraft itself yet,” he said.
He said naval personnel, local emergency officials, Amotekun and residents moved into the creek with boats immediately the crash occurred, but no living soul was found.
He said the site has been cordoned off, while hospitals in Igbokoda and Okitipupa have been placed on standby with ambulances recently procured for the 18 local governments.
The governor said the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau are investigating and will need to recover the black box to determine the exact cause.
Speaking on the recent elimination of Abdussamad Ohida, a top ISWAP coordinator in Ondo forest, Aiyedatiwa said the clearance operation took place about five days ago after months of top secret surveillance.
He said it was a joint operation involving the DSS, Nigerian Army, British intelligence officers and Amotekun, with no casualties recorded on the side of security forces.
The governor explained that the coordinator took over after his former superior, a Central Nigeria ISWAP leader, was arrested by the DSS in 2023, adding that intelligence was generated from that arrest and from tracking of another leader earlier eliminated by DSS.
He revealed that the criminals carry sophisticated weapons beyond AK-47, including GPMG, and had retaliated when security first launched attack.
“When we launched the first attack, they retaliated. So we had to move back, heavily arm, do serious intelligence and mapping before we re-launched,” he said.
Aiyedatiwa said the role of the UK was provision of intelligence and precision targeting equipment that Amotekun does not have, while Amotekun provided knowledge of terrain because many of its operatives are recruited local hunters.
He said Ondo’s vast forests sharing boundaries with Kogi, Edo, Ekiti and Oyo have become a corridor for criminals fleeing military operations in Kogi and Kwara axis.
According to him, what started as farmer-herder clashes years ago has graduated to terrorism, linking the group to the 2025 December 31 attack on Ipele police station and the 2022 Owo massacre.
On whether the group plans to disrupt 2027 elections, he said their agenda in totality is to kill, destroy and disrupt in any form.
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