JOIN US The governor of a northern Nigerian state was injured along with five other people after an aircraft piloted by him crashed at an airport in a neighbouring province.
Danbaba Suntai, the 51-year-old governor of Taraba state, his two aides and three other passengers who were with him in the aircraft also survived the crash yesterday and are being treated in a hospital.
Mohammed Ibrahim, the state police spokesman of the neighbouring Adamawa state where the plane crashed, said Suntai and two security aides were being treated at the main hospital in Yola.
A statement from the Nigerian ministry of aviation said, "an aircraft, Cessna 208 with 6 souls on board including crew, operated by the Taraba State Government departed Jalingo, Taraba State for Yola on Thursday (yesterday) evening and reported contact with the Yola Control Tower."
"The pilot subsequently lost contact with Yola Control Tower and subsequent effort to raise the aircraft failed. Search & Rescue was immediately activated and site of incident located with all victims alive with various degrees of injuries," the statement said.
It said the victims were evacuated to the hospital for treatment pending further investigation of the incident.
A government house source in Yola said on condition of anonymity that the governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako came to the airport with a medical team to convey his counterpart to the hospital.
Suntai, who was elected as the chief executive of Taraba State, in 2007, was re-elected in 2011.
The governor has love for aircrafts and learnt to fly by tuition from a pilot he employed after purchasing a helicopter and two small aeroplanes.
Not satisfied with the tuition, he enrolled with an aviation college and graduated as a pilot last year.
Suntai commenced the construction of an airport in his state but has been unable to complete it even after spending huge amount of money for the project.
Last month, the state parliament impeached the deputy governor, Sani Abubakar for gross misconduct and no other person has been appointed deputy to the governor since then.