The Guardian (Lagos)
Madu Onuora
28 September 2001
Abuja — Emotions surged high yesterday as participants at a seminar for Nigerian Air Force Service Commanders remembered the crash in 1992 of NAF C-130 Hercules transport aircraft in Ejigbo, Lagos State, and the September 11 Kamikaze attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. They observed a minute silence for either group of victims.
Before the commencement of the two-day seminar, held at the Scorpion Officers Mess, Abuja, a one-minute silence was observed for victims of the September 26, 1992 crash at Ejigbo, involving middle-level officers on course at the Command and Staff College, Jaji.
Last week, widows of the crash victims - mainly Majors and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force - won a reprieve from the military authorities at the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa on Human Rights Violation and Investigation Commission, as both parties signed an agreement for the military to fully pay the welfare benefits of the widows and their children.
Declaring the conference open, Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Jonah Wuyep deployed the bombing attacks at the World Trade Centre and the crash into the Pentagon.
According to him, so many innocent lives were lost", we are concerned. Let's observe a one-minute silence in their honour".
He further observed that the federal government should be commended for sustaining the current momentum of professionalism in the Armed Forces.
AVM Wuyep said the provision for troops and sustenance of morale their should be "thoroughly, honestly and professionally addressed in peacetime, so that the efficiency and success of the Armed Forces can be guaranteed in times of national need."
He asked the commanders, including Air Officers Commanding, Air Officers-in-charge, commanders of formations and units, to use the seminar to look into the problems hindering the provision of better services in the force and proffer workable solutions for implementation.
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