Twenty-nine 29 years after, Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (rtd), met with representatives of widows of military officers who died in the 1992 C-130 Ejigbo crash, assuring them on the final settlement of their entitlements as Next-of-Kin.
The delegation was led by the National Co-ordinator of the group, Ogale Jude.
On 26 September 1992, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Lockheed C-130H Hercules crashed three minutes after take-off from Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria. All 159 people on board were killed, including 8 foreign nationals.
They were middle-level military participants of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji comprised of 151 Nigerians, 5 Ghanaians, 1 Tanzanian, 1 Zimbabwean, and 1 Ugandan.
The aircraft was said to be taking off at high weight and three engines failed.
Special Assistant to the Minister of Defence on Media and Publicity, Mohammad Abdulkadri, said in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja that the delegation raised the general concerns about unfulfilled promises by the tripartite bodies of the Federal Government, the home States of the deceased and the Services.
The promises include building houses, purchase of cars and trainings the children of of the officers who paid the supreme price while on national duty to the country.
He noted that, General Magashi expressed strong political will to address the gaps that led to the delay and discrepancies in settling the commitments to the widows who sadly disclosed that some of their members have died due to lack of funds to pay medical bills.
He added that the Minister tasked the group to furnish the Ministry with the updated facts and figures about members living or dead, adding that the raw data will trigger actionable efforts to meet their demands once and for all.