Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has said no survivor has been recovered following the crash of a military aircraft in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.
Aiyedatiwa said rescue teams had so far recovered parts of the aircraft, identity cards and military uniforms but had yet to reach the main body of the aircraft, which reportedly plunged deep into a swamp.
The governor disclosed this on Monday night during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
According to him, the surveillance aircraft had 32 people on board — 25 passengers and seven crew members — and was travelling from Benin to Lagos when it lost radio communication at about 9.15am.
He said he was informed of the incident at about 10.30am by the chairman of Ilaje Local Government, who told him that residents had heard a sound resembling an air tremor before the aircraft went down in a swamp directly opposite the Naval Forward Operating Base in Igbokoda.
“They saw the wreckage from the wings, some ID cards and uniforms indicating it was a military aircraft. The main body went deep into the swamp area. They haven’t been able to search the aircraft itself yet,” Aiyedatiwa said.
The governor said naval personnel, emergency officials, Amotekun operatives and local residents immediately moved into the creek with boats following the crash, but no survivor had been found.
He added that the crash site had been cordoned off while hospitals in Igbokoda and Okitipupa were placed on standby, with ambulances recently procured for the state’s 18 local government areas.
Aiyedatiwa said the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau were involved in investigations into the crash and that recovery of the aircraft’s black box would be necessary to determine the exact cause.
ISWAP Commander Killed in Ondo Forest
The governor also spoke about the recent killing of Abdussamad Ohida, described as a senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) coordinator operating in the Ondo forests.
Aiyedatiwa said the operation took place about five days earlier after months of secret surveillance and intelligence gathering.
He said the operation was jointly carried out by the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Army, British intelligence personnel and the Amotekun Corps, with no reported casualties among the security forces.
According to the governor, Ohida assumed leadership of the group after his former superior, identified as a Central Nigeria ISWAP leader, was arrested by the DSS in 2023.
He said intelligence obtained from that arrest, combined with information gathered while tracking another militant leader previously eliminated by the DSS, helped security agencies locate the group.
Aiyedatiwa said the criminals were armed with sophisticated weapons, including general-purpose machine guns (GPMGs), in addition to AK-47 rifles.
He explained that security forces initially encountered resistance when they launched an attack on the group.
“When we launched the first attack, they retaliated. So we had to move back, heavily arm, do serious intelligence and mapping before we re-launched,” he said.
The governor said British personnel provided intelligence and precision-targeting support, while Amotekun operatives contributed their knowledge of the terrain, with many of them having backgrounds as local hunters.
He said Ondo’s extensive forests, which border Kogi, Edo, Ekiti and Oyo states, had increasingly become a corridor for criminals fleeing military operations in the Kogi and Kwara axis.
According to Aiyedatiwa, the security situation had evolved from farmer-herder clashes to terrorist activities, with the group allegedly linked to the December 31, 2025 attack on Ipele Police Station and the 2022 Owo massacre.
Asked whether the group planned to disrupt the 2027 general elections, the governor said its broader agenda was to “kill, destroy and disrupt in any form”.
