• Maccido's son, grandson in 'flight of death'
   
• Sultan buried amid tears
   
• Senator Gandi, mother, wife, three kids die
   
• Shehu Shagari loses son, Abdulrahman
   
• Kogi gov's three daughters, four others survive
   

NIGERIA was once again thrown into deep mourning yesterday as a passenger aircraft belonging to the Aviation Development Company (ADC) crashed shortly after take-off from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Crashed Nigerian ADC  BOEING 737-2B7 Plane

Of the 100 passengers and five crew members on board, only seven persons were reported to have survived the crash.

The dead included the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of Nigeria's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido; Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Garba Mohammed; two Senators, Sule Yari Gandi and Badamasi Maccido, who was also the Sultan's son and another grandson and four children of the same parents, with surname as Abdurahaman.

Corpses Of The Dead At Crash Site

The others included a Manager in Equitorial Trust Bank in Sokoto State, Mr. O.H. Irabor, a son of Second Republic President Shehu Shagari, Abdulrahman; and a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Lawal M.A.

For Senator Gandi's family, it was even a tragedy of unbelievable proportions: his mother, his wife and three children were on board and died with him.

Three daughters of Kogi State Governor, Ibrahim Idris, survived. So also is another son of the late Badamasi Maccido, as well as Messrs Bello Jabo and Peter Onuka. The identity of the seventh person was not ascertained as at last night.

The Kogi governor's daughter's names were given as Jemila, Aisha and Hajiya.

The plane, a Boeing 737, crashed at the Ido, Tunga-Madaki village, just two kilometres from the airport.

Yesterday's mishap came barely a week to the tenth anniversary of the heart rending crash involving the same ADC airline in Ejirin, Lagos in November 1996. One of the witnesses of the evacuation told The Guardian last night that it was a sight too gory to be repeated in a lifetime.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, from his Ota, Ogun State residence, yesterday expressed "deep" and "profound" shock at the incident. He ordered three days of national mourning and a full investigation of the cause of the crash.

Sokoto was thrown into mourning as news of the death of the Sultan and several other prominent citizens of the state was received.

Born in 1926, in Dange town, some 26 kilometres from Sokoto town, Sultan Maccido was the eldest son of his father, the late 17th Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Siddiq 111.

He became the 19th Sultan of Sokoto in 1996 following the deposition of the 18th Sultan, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki.

He was buried yesterday at Hubbaren Shehu (The tomb of Shehu Usman Danfodio).

The late Sultan's body was flown in a presidential plane to Sokoto for the burial. At the burial were Second Republic President Shehu Shagari, Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa, his Kebbi State counterpart, Adamu Aliero, and Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Mera.

His remains were airlifted to Sokoto at 6.45 p.m.

Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media), Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, said that the President "was in a state of grief." He also sympathised with the bereaved and all Nigerians.

The crash site is located south of the Presidential Wing of the airport and straight from the runway, just before the hills overlooking the airport.

The aircraft had arrived from Lagos and after its Abuja passengers disembarked, at 10.29 a.m., took off for the flight to Sokoto in a turbulent weather condition. The aircraft took off by 10.29 a.m., only to veer off its normal route and started a descent and crashed five minutes later.

From the perimeter fences by the two sides of the international wing of the airport, which is the operational crisis centre for the crash, security, hospital and other operational vehicles, including ambulances can be seen moving in and out.

The site could also be seen from the southernmost side of the Presidential wing, with the vehicles seen closer as they moved in and out.

By 3.10 p.m., the Federal Fire Service was still using its hose to douse fire which continued to billow and was still noticed from the distance. By 3.15 p.m., the fire was finally put out.

At 3.17 p.m., a helicopter belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) took off from the airport. Another helicopter which has been moving from the site to the airport took off. It landed minutes later opposite the fire house at the international wing of the airport with some rescue officials.

By 4.10 p.m., a truck belonging to the construction firm, Julius Berger, carrying an earth excavator drove into the operational entrance of the airport crisis centre.

Thereafter, a security official, who had been part of the rescue effort, came out from the lounge of the airport. He was distinct in his shoes and the bottom side of the trousers drenched in mud.

Speaking under anonymity on his impressions of the crash site, he told The Guardian: "It is a horrible site. It is a horrible site," shaking his head as he entered his car and drove off.

At the perimeter fences of the airport, sympathisers stood by the wired fences, exchanging information on the incident.

President Obasanjo has ordered a full investigation into the crash.

The President also directed that the full report of the investigation be made available to him.

Mrs. Oyo had shortly after the incident stated that "President Olusegun Obasanjo is deeply and profoundly shocked and saddened. He is in a state of grief over this crash of an airline in the environs of the federal capital."

Her statement added: "The President has ordered a full report to be made available to him. He has also ordered an investigation into the crash. He is profoundly saddened, and he condoles with all Nigerians because all of us are touched when this kind of thing happens and especially the families of those who may have been on board the airline."

Prominent northern leaders, including the former governors of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa and Lawal Kaita, expressed shock over the mishap.

Musa said that it was unfortunate that another aviation accident occurred only about a month after some Army Generals and other senior military officers died in similar circumstances.

The former governor, who noted that ordinarily there was nothing unusual about air mishaps since they happen even in advanced countries," however described as "baffling," the frequency of the crashes in Nigeria.

He queried: "Is it just a co-incidence that after a month, when some senior military men died in similar circumstances another one has happened now? We should pray for the repose of the souls of those who died and may Allah grant them Allujjannah (space in heaven)."

Kaita told The Guardian: "We are dumb-founded that another air crash has happened again. This is a bad omen for our country and we have to pray against this unfortunate development."

He continued: "The death of the Sultan of Sokoto and other Nigerians in the crash, is a heavy blow to us. This is a great loss to Nigeria".

Kaita urged the Federal Government to immediately institute a high-level probe into the incident in order to establish its cause.

He advised the government to come out with a policy that would ensure that out-dated planes do not operate in the nation's air space.

Kaita, who sympathised with the families of the victims of the crash, prayed that God should grant them the strength to overcome the grief and shock.

The leader of the youth wing of the Northern Union (NU), Malam Mohammed Alhaji Yakubu, expressed disappointment over the high incidence of plane crashes in the country in recent times.

He said: "We are not happy about these occurrences and this shows that the government is not serious over its aviation sector, because they cannot tell us that solution could not be found to the problem."

Also, the first civilian governor of Plateau State, Chief Solomon Lar, expressed sincere condolences to Nigerians and the people of Sokoto State over the plane crash.

He condoled with the emirate council over the death of the Sultan. Lar spoke yesterday when he received the National Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Iro-Safana and his team who paid him a solidarity visit.

Lar said he had just condoled with the Governor of Sokoto State on phone, adding that he also learnt that former President Shehu Shagari's son was also a victim of the crash. Niger State Governor Abdulkadir Abdullahi Kure was among mourners at the crash site yesterday in Tunga Madaki village Abuja. In an interview with The Guardian last night, he said: "Apart from the loss of the Sultan of Sokoto, the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, I also lost a very good friend, Sir Chief Cyprian Nwaeze, managing director/CEO of News Engineering Nigeria Limited, a foremost electrical engineering company in Abuja and the North."

He added: "We were together two days ago. We went to Umuahia together on Friday. He was going to Sokoto to return on Wednesday. But God decided otherwise. That is where Allah is sovereign."

Kure continued: "We will miss the Sultan. He was a great man, a man of peace and wisdom."