On September 26, 1992, Wing Commander J.P. Alaboson took off from Lagos airport, piloting a Lockheed C-130 Hercules with registration number NAF 911.
The plane was carrying 160 people, including military officers from Nigeria and other African countries, as well as two senior Defence Ministry staff and a civilian reporter.
The passengers, mostly middle-ranking officers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, were returning to the Staff Command College in Jaji, Kaduna State, after a tour of naval installations in Lagos. Tragically, the plane crashed into a swamp in Ejigbo, Lagos, killing everyone on board.
160 dead: Nigeria cancels Independence Day festivities
The crash occurred just days before Nigeria’s 32nd Independence Day anniversary, casting a shadow over the celebrations. General Ibrahim Babangida, the head of state, visited the crash site and expressed his sorrow, stating that the tragedy had wiped out “a whole generation of military officers.”
In response, Babangida cancelled all planned Independence Day events, including the president’s speech and the traditional parades. A political forum scheduled to discuss the 1993 presidential election with leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) was also disrupted.
By the following year, the memory of the Ejigbo crash had faded, overshadowed by the political turmoil of Babangida’s annulment of the June 12 election. The crash was not mentioned in the 1993 Independence Day speech by Ernest Shonekan, head of the Interim National Government.
Despite being largely forgotten, the Ejigbo crash remains a significant event that disrupted Nigeria’s Independence Day celebrations, a day usually reserved for national pride and hope for a better future.
