The Christian Association of Nigeria has commiserated with President Mohammadu Buhari on the loss of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 others in a military plane crash on Friday, May 21.
CAN according to a statement signed by its National Secretary, Daramola Bade Joseph also commiserated with the military and families of those who died in the crash.
The body then called for a probe into what led to the crash.
CAN expressed deep sorrow over the crash while also noting that those who died in the crash “laid down their lives in order to keep our nation safe and secure from the aggression of terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements in our nation”
While asking God to console President Buhari and all the families affected by the painful exit of those in the ill-fated plane, the body prayed that “this type of national tragedy will never occur again.”
CAN then went on to observe that the nation was witnessing the third military disaster in a space of three months.
The statement reads in part, “If these reports are true, then it is high time thorough investigations are carried out with a view to ascertaining the immediate and remote causes of these recurrent disasters and address the causes decisively and squarely. We cannot continue to lose our finest military and security officers to air disasters without treating the situation as a national emergency.”
The statement reads further, “CAN is genuinely concerned and suggests that while the nation still awaits the report of the cause or causes of this latest crash, adequate measures should be taken so as to avert this kind of tragedy both in our military and civil aviation in the future.
“We must ascertain that all military aircraft are fit to fly and that the training of the flight officers is excellent. We further plead that adequate care should be taken of the dependants of the deceased so that they might be proud eternally of the nation the deceased served.”
CAN also called on the international community to come to the aid of Nigeria so as to end the menace of insecurity in the country.
The Christian body also called on Nigerians to join in prayer starting from May 28-30 to pray to God to against evil in the land.