Action Congress of Nigeria, on Sunday, called for a thorough investigation of Saturday's military helicopter crash that killed Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser, Gen. Owoye Azazi, and four others.
The ACN said it received the news of Saturday's fatal crash with rude shock and deep sadness, describing it as an unspeakable national tragedy.
The party said unravelling the "cause of the crash with a view to preventing a recurrence would mean the victims did not die in vain."
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said, "Every plane crash makes flying safer. That assumes that every such crash is properly investigated and the cause or causes found, disclosed and fed into efforts aimed at averting a recurrence. Saturday's crash should not be an exception."
The party said apart from the "rituals of mourning the victims of such tragedies and ordering a probe, this latest crash must not be allowed to go the way of the previous ones, the cause or causes of which are yet unknown, thus robbing the nation of the chance to make flying in the country safer."
ACN added, "Till date, the March 2012 crash of a police helicopter in Jos, in which a Deputy Inspector-General of Police was killed, had yet to be unravelled, neither had the nation been told conclusively what caused the June 2012 crash of a Dana Air MD-83 plane that killed over 159 people, or even the series of deadly plane crashes that occurred prior to those ones.
"For the military, the crash in 2011 of two of the newly-procured Chinese fighter jets fit into this pattern as the cause or causes have not been unravelled, to the best of our knowledge. The crash of another military aircraft, the Nigerian Navy Agusta helicopter, on Saturday must not be allowed to follow this pattern.
"The safety of the flying public as well as our men and women in uniform must be of paramount importance to those saddled with the responsibility of ensuring safe air travels, and no stone should be left unturned in ensuring this."
The party expressed its condolences to the Federal Government, the government and people of Kaduna and Bayelsa states, as well as the families of all those who died in the crash.
