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Tears and emotions flowed on Thursday as the remains of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile were laid to rest at the military cemetery on Airport road, Abuja.

An ambulance belonging to the Nigerian Air Force with registration number AF 442, had brought in the body.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique; Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello and his wife; the House Committee Chairman on Air Force, Bala Ib’n Nalla, including the family of the deceased were present to pay their last respects.

As soon as the Nigerian Air Force first announced that the country’s first female combat helicopter pilot died from a road traffic accident at the NAF base in Kaduna State, the country was thrown in immense mourning over the loss of the gem.

The air force said the female officer sustained head injuries from the accident when she was “inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force secondary school classmate while trying to greet her.”

NAF said Arotile was hit by an ex-classmate, Nehemiah Adejoh, who had no valid driver’s licence, noting that the matter, being a civil case, would be transferred to the Nigeria Police Force.