The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has called on the Federal Government to investigate repeated air crashes to prevent further loss of lives in the country.
It urged the government to constitute a formidable investigative panel of experts to unearth the recurring mystery.
The Secretary General of JNI, Dr Khalid Aliyu, made the appeal in a statement issued on Tuesday in Kaduna.
Aliyu said constituting the panel to unearth the air mishaps involving senior servicemen “is so averred because the nation is seriously losing human capital.
“This human capital isn’t just easy to come by, as it is consciously and determinedly acquired”.
According to him, for posterity we implore the government to release other reports of happenings in which innocent lives were lost and implement same so as to serve as deterrent, as well as take necessary steps to forestall recurrence.
Aliyu said, JNI under the leadership of its President-General, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar III, received with shock, the death news of the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 others, as a result of airplane crash.
“As Muslims we submit to Allah’s ordained trials, in faith, as they occur.
“Nevertheless, from the several accounts of the deceased’s associates, colleagues, families and friends, virtually all of them were good men of virtues.
“In fact, the more you hear of any of them, the more you conclude that ab initio what you knew personally of them was nothing compared to what is being said of them.
“May the testimonies count in the record of their good deeds before Allah. May He the exceedingly merciful overlook their shortcomings,” he said.
He explained that, if anything, their death is a pointer to the uncertainty of this ephemeral life.
“Indeed this sad event is a lesson from the dead to the living, most especially the Nigerian ruling class as they hold sway in their respective offices, and the citizens too should learn humility and uprightness.
“The JNI heartily condoles with the federal government, the Nigerian armed forces, especially the army, the deceased immediate and extended families.
“Also, all Nigerians on this colossal loss of some of our finest men in gallantry and sacrifice, as the nation executes the war against insurgency and banditry from every angle,” the statement read part.
He said, as Muslims, we believe that every soul shall taste death and at the appointed time as declared and confirmed in the Glorious Qur’an.
“We therefore wholeheartedly submit to Allah (SWT) in total obedience and faith in everything that happens in our lives; good or otherwise.”
Aliyu prayed Allah the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful, to compassionately forgive Gen. Attahiru and others with him, grant them all Jannatul Firdaus.
“And give their respective families and the nation at large the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss,” Aliyu said.
