By Oladapo Udom
Iuleha community, Owan West Local Government of Edo on Thursday appealed to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to establish a unit in their community in memory of foremost pilot, Col. Shittu Alao, whose plane crashed in 1969 in the community.
The community leaders told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the call became necessary because those who were born after the crash had always asked why the crashed scene was being called: “Ekpoke Alao” (scene of Col. Alao’s death).
Mr Edeki Aigbogun, in an interview, told NAN the community would always remember the pilot, who did not crash the plane on a school playground after the plane hovered around it for a while but crashed a kilometre after the school.
Aigbogun said that, although the pilot was not from the community, he should be remembered for his efforts.
NAN reports that Alao from Ogbomosho, Osun, was born in Dorowa Babuje in Plateau State. He was among the four Nigerian Army Officers that were first seconded to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) with a view to taking over command from the Germans.
He took over the leadership of the NAF from Brigadier Kurubo on Aug. 5, 1967. Following his secondment to the NAF, Alao was sent to Germany in 1963 for a one-year indoctrination course on all aspects of air force training.
On return from Germany, Alao was appointed Senior Air Operations Officer at Headquarters NAF (HQ NAF). He headed the NAF in its most trying period, that is, the thick of the civil war.
Alao infused a sense of patriotism and confidence in his officers. He led by example and personally carried out bombing raids during the war.
A very brave officer and pilot, he died on active duty while on a solo flight in an L-29 aircraft in the Southern-western part of the country when he ran into bad weather and subsequently ran out of fuel.
He made an emergency landing in Uzebba in Iuleha community in Edo and died in the process.
Aigbogun said that Alao, who died on Oct. 15, 1969 during the civil war in Uzebba, should be remembered with an airforce base in his memory.
“I was still in primary school on the fateful day when about noon, the warplane with high velocity hovered around the community and very low to the ground.
“Everyone in town went into a panic. We rushed out of our classrooms at St. Mary Catholic School, Uzebba to take cover on the school playground at the request of our headmaster.
“We never knew that the distressed warplane was looking for an open level ground to make an emergency landing. Due to ignorance, most of us thought that the plane was there to bomb the community.
“Later the plane ran out of fuel and the late colonel, in sympathy, avoided crashlanding in all three schools within the community on seeing pupils spread out on the field.
“The colonel, instead, crashed very close to Uzebba Grammer School to avoid causing mass death to students who had taken cover on the school playground,” he said.
According to Aigbogun, the spot where the plane crashed is known as “Ekpoke Alao” (the spot where Alao died).
He said that shortly after the crash, a rescue team from Benin City arrived at the spot and took the body of the pilot away.
Aigbogun, a retired staff of First Bank Plc, said that the crash became historic because it kept coming up in examination questions in the community, where students were asked to indicate what town and day the crash occurred.
“Such a historic event that happened at Uzebba during the civil war of 1966 to 1970 should not quickly be forgotten but instead a memorial should be built to that effect.
“Uzebba must be remembered with the establishment of an Airforce base named after Col. Shittu Alao as a memorial,” he said.
Aigbogun added that such military formation would help improve the security situation in the community because the community was now being threatened by kidnappers and armed robbers.
Also, Mr Dada Okun, another community elder, said that such military formation would gladden the heart of the residents because it would help complement the efforts of the local vigilante.
“It will also encourage the natives to return to their farms without fear because of the military presence in the area.
“The formation will help the community accomplish their long dream of trying to immortalise the late colonel who died on that spot,” Okun said.
(NAN)
