Nigeria’s Tinubu confirms 32 dead after military plane crash

A Nigerian Air Force plane crashed on Monday in the country’s southwestern Ondo state, killing all 32 people on board, President Bola Tinubu said.

The passenger aircraft was on a “routine mission” from Benin City in southern Nigeria to the economic hub of Lagos when it went down at Igbokoda in Ondo state shortly after 9:00am (0800 GMT), the president and the airforce said.

“The president extends his deepest condolences to the family of the 25 passengers and seven crew members involved,” Tinubu’s office said in a statement.

Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said earlier on X that the plane crashed near a naval base.

Keyamo and Tinubu described it as an ATR-42 — a twin-engine turboprop that the manufacturers say can carry between 30 and 50 passengers

A video circulating on social media showed a small crowd gathered near a river while rescuers searched the area by boat.

The president said he had “directed the Nigerian Air Force to immediately commence a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash to prevent future occurrences”.

Dayo Akinte, 39, a firewood hawker who lives about a kilometre (mile) from where the accident occurred,  described to AFP hearing a sound she thought was “thunder”, referring to the time she believes the plane went down.

Since the crash, “three aircraft have also been flying over the scene”, she said by phone.

She said someone who went fishing in the swamp alerted the nearby naval base and people in the town about the crash.

Igbokoda is located in Ilaje, an oil-producing region in southern Nigeria.