Former Head of State
Gen. Yakubu Gowon said on Wednesday [Dec. 19] in Kafanchan, Kaduna State
that he narrowly missed the helicopter that crashed killing Kaduna State
Governor Patrick Yakowa, ex-National Security Adviser Andrew Azazi and four
others in Bayelsa State on Saturday.
Gowon said this
during a Special Service Session to mark the 50th birthday of Apostle
Emmanuel Kure of Throney in Broom Ministry, Kafanchan.
“As we
were with the aide to the President to
pay our condolences, they were arranging a Navy helicopter to take us to
Yenogoa (with Yakowa). But, another helicopter was arranged for me and five
others. And that was it”.
“So
when I heard about this accident, it really pained me. And I want to say, well,
you can never tell with some of these things. It was an accident. Don’t impugn
any meaning to it. Don’t say that it was planned to get rid of some people or
something like that”.
“It was
an accident, yes. There was this young pilot of the helicopter, who came to me
after another helicopter, was found for us, and he said to me, ‘Sir, but I was
all ready to take you to Yenagoa as part of my duty today’. And I said to him,
‘don’t worry, there will be another time. I really hope I will have the
pleasure of flying with you again’.
“These
were nice innocent people. Something, probably mechanical, went wrong to have
caused the accident. So it was not a plan to get rid of the governor for
whatever any reason people want to guess”.
“When,
on Sunday, I saw the governor (Mukhtar Yero), I said, ‘I hope you will continue
with the good work that your late governor was doing. It was the two of you
that were doing the work. You were working to bring peace to Kaduna State. I hope you will do something about this
madness alluded to Boko Haram, which, unfortunately is being alluded to
Muslims’.”
Meanwhile,
Fadan Kagoma village, in Jema’a Local
Government Council, birthplace of the late
Yakowa, is to receive his remains today (Thursday). Fadan Kagoma is about 230km
away from Kaduna city.
-PUNCH
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