The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, and the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, have agreed to deepen cooperation between Nigeria’s civil and military aviation authorities after the Nigerian Air Force aircraft crash at Igbokoda in Ondo State.
The agreement was reached on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, when Keyamo paid a condolence visit to the Chief of the Air Staff in Abuja. He signed the condolence register and held a private meeting with Air Marshal Aneke before both men addressed journalists. A statement by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Tunde Moshood, said the talks were intended to narrow the longstanding operational divide between the two sectors and to encourage a wider exchange of technical expertise.
The Nigerian Air Force aircraft, an ATR 42, was on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos on Monday, 5 October, with 25 people on board, made up of 20 passengers and five crew members. It lost contact at about 9.13 am and crashed in a swampy area near the Naval Base in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State. The Air Force later confirmed that all 25 people on board died.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Keyamo said the accident had reinforced the need for closer cooperation, because aviation accidents do not distinguish between civilian and military operators.
“It is one country, one people. When disaster happens, it affects everybody. There were civilians in that air crash and when there is an air crash in civil aviation too, there can be military personnel. And so, it is important that we cooperate in the area of safety,” he said.
He added: “We have decided that we will cooperate in terms of capacity building.”
Keyamo said he had already contacted the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Chris Najomo, and had facilitated direct communication between the NCAA leadership and the Chief of the Air Staff. He announced that a joint committee of the NCAA and the Nigerian Air Force would be set up to coordinate work on airworthiness, certification, training and other aviation safety measures, while respecting the statutory mandates of both institutions.
He also said Air Force personnel would be given access to relevant training programmes run by the civil aviation authorities. “There is no reason why we cannot take some names from the Air Force. We have a lot of training we go for, so there is no reason why we cannot,” he said.
In his response, Air Marshal Aneke thanked the minister for the condolence visit and for his support for the Nigerian Air Force. He described the engagement as evidence of the growing relationship between the civil and military aviation sectors, and said discussions had already begun on a framework that would allow civil aviation personnel to support the Air Force safety environment, particularly in airworthiness and certification. Air Force specialists would, in turn, share their expertise with the civil sector where required.
“We have both agreed that we need to move the aviation industry, whether military or civil, to a higher level,” the Chief of the Air Staff said. “We are serving the same government; we are protecting the same Nigerians. So we are just a blend of each other.”
The proposed arrangement is expected to give both institutions a structured platform for sharing expertise and strengthening safety processes, especially where civil and military aviation operations meet.
By John James
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