Tolulope Arotile was able to achieve her dreams before her death — Father

YOU must have been devastated by the unfortunate loss of your daughter…

(Cuts in): That is an understatement. From day one, she was not just brilliant but wonderful. I was in Kaduna then; she had all her education, from kindergarten to secondary at the Air Force base and the Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna. One day, when she was very young, she pointed to one small aircraft parked on the field and said, ‘Dad, one day, I am going to fly that aircraft’ and I said ‘Amen.’ So from that day, she started working towards that. She got admission to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna; she had a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and became an Air Force cadet. She was sent on several courses abroad and became a pilot. I just thank God that she was able to achieve her dreams before her death.

What was her position in the family?

She was the fourth child.

She had been described in several fora as an award-winning pilot and, in fact, the first female combat pilot in Nigeria…

(Cuts in): Oh God! Right from day one, she had been very intelligent. Sometimes I wondered what type of intelligent quotient (IQ) she had. She also combined intelligence with hard-work. In fact, if you were here when her bosses from Enugu came, you would think she was their daughter with the way they were eulogising her and saying they were proud of her achievements.

When was your last encounter with her?

Just yesterday (Tuesday); at about 1:00 p.m., I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina. They gave them one week to rest, so she told me she was in bed resting. She said she would later go out to make some photocopies and I told her not to be long and to return home on time because she was staying with my first daughter in Kaduna.

Around 5:30 p.m., somebody called me and asked if I had called her today and I said yes, then the person told me to call her, which I did, but there was no response, so I called her colleagues, and they were all crying on the phone. I asked them what happened, but they were just crying.

So, I called one of her bosses who told me that she was in the mortuary. I then asked how somebody I spoke with about four hours earlier could be in the mortuary. I had to drive to Lokoja from Abuja to inform her mother physically because I could not break such news to her on the phone. However, when I got to Lokoja, she had gone to the prayer mountain. She came back around 8.30 am and I told her this is what I heard but that I was yet to confirm it.

What has been the reaction of the Air Force authorities since the incident happened?

I must say that I am really impressed by the outpour of sympathy and support. There have been several visits from her bosses from all over the country, including here in Lokoja, Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu and everywhere.

The support has been overwhelming; they even gave a token and promised that later, they would do something. They even promised to give a choice of where to bury her, but her commandant suggested that she should be buried at the National Cemetery, Abuja because of the number of people who will attend the funeral and due to the feat she achieved as the first female combatant pilot in Nigeria.

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