Hours after a military aircraft carrying Ibrahim Attahiru, the deceased Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and other military personnel crashed, a trending video surfaced on social media with claims that two persons flew out of the plane apparently with parachute.
Mr Attahiru and other occupants of the plane died on Friday after landing on the run way of the Kaduna international airport. Military authorities hastily concluded that the air accident was caused by a bad weather, though there was heavy downpour.
Mr Attahiru was on his way to Kaduna to attend a passing-out parade for some army recruits.
In the trending clip, a middle-aged man, apparently granting an interview, claimed to have seen two persons jump out of the aircraft with parachute and was out of his sight in a short while.
He was standing in a bush which, apparently, is a crash site judging by some debris of a plane sighted around him.
In the video, the man doesn’t mention anything related to the army chief or the location of the crash site.
“The thing happened. They were up (in the air), as it happened, the airplane tumbled and they used parachute, the two of them, while the plane turned its direction downwards.
“As it (the aircraft) was heading downwards, people were saying it was rehearsal but I told them that this is already beyond rehearsals. When it (the aircraft) fell, it blew up and resulted in fire. After that, those people landed somewhere but we don’t know the precise place,” the man narrated in pidgin.
Nigerians without verifying the source of the video clip began circulating it as emanating from the accident which occurred Friday evening.
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A former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, who also reacted called for investigation into what transpired, suggesting that the departed personnel might have been assassinated.
Obiwest Utchaychukwu, a Facebook user, also described it as an eyewitness account of Friday’s incident in Kaduna.
“An eyewitness report of the plane crash that killed Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and others. I don’t think it’s ordinary. Fear this government,” he wrote.
David Chibuoso Dennis, another user, shared the video with a caption indicating that Attahiru’s death was planned.
IS THE VIDEO CONNECTED TO THE DEATH OF ATTAHIRU AND 10 OTHERS?
At close look at the trending video clip one would notice the watermark of Voice TV Nigeria. When Newsflash Nigeria probed further, it was discovered that the clip from which the trending part was extracted from dates back to September 2018.
The multimedia channel at the time of uploading it said it was a video clip of a crashed military jet in Abuja.
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The six minutes twenty five seconds clip began by capturing the then crashed aircraft hovering around vicinity.
The plane crash incident occured in Katampe area of Abuja on September 28, 2018.
Ibikunle Daramola, NAF’s director of public relations and information at the time, had confirmed the incident in a tweet.
“I wish to confirm an air incident involving 2 Nigerian Air Force aircraft taking part in the rehearsals for the 58th Independence Day Celebrations. Details will be communicated later,” he wrote.
In a follow-up brief, Daramola confirmed the death of one of the two pilots who had ejected from one of the crashed jets.
“It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce that one of the pilots who successfully ejected from one of the F-7Ni aircraft that crashed earlier today has passed on. May his soul RIP. Additional details on the incident will be communicated later,” he wrote.
Thereafter, the edited clip showed locals thronging to the accident scene before the part where the middle-aged man narrated what he allegedly saw which is being circulated on social media as coming from the Kaduna crash site.
The original video clip is reproduced below.
CONCLUSION: No recent evidence to back up the claim that two persons flew out of the crashed aircraft conveying the military personnel to Kaduna at the weekend.
VERDICT: The claim is false.
