NAF spokesman, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, in a statement, said the MI-171 Helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission crashed at about 1.00pm yesterday near Chukuba Village in Niger State.
He did not disclose the number of the officers onboard, but the helicopter is believed to have a capacity of over 20 passengers.
There were, however, reports that the helicopter was shot down by non-state actors and that the pilot died.
Gabkwet explained that the aircraft had departed Zungeru Primary School enroute Kaduna, but was later discovered to have crashed near Chukuba Village in Shiroro LGA.
He also did not state whether or not there were casualties.
He said efforts were still ongoing to rescue the crew and passengers on board the helicopter. He said preliminary investigations had commenced to determine the probable cause of the crash.
Military silent on soldiers’ killing
The Defence Headquarters was yesterday silent on the killing of its personnel.
The Director of the Defence Media Operations, Major-General Edward Buba, neither answered several phone calls nor replied to a text message which our correspondent sent to him for confirmation of the incident.
But a military officer, who asked not to be mentioned, simply said more than eight soldiers were killed in the incident.
“It is very sad to hear about this development, my brother. Of course, some of our colleagues paid the supreme price for the incident that happened during the weekend. I can’t ascertain their number. I only know that at least eight of them are no more,” the officer said. It would be recalled that last year, 15 soldiers and seven policemen were killed by bandits in Niger State. Locals had alleged that there were collaborators within communities.
Chairman, Shiroro LGA, Akilu Isyaku Kuta, yesterday said the security situation in the area had deteriorated in recent times.