Foremost aviation pilot, founder and Executive Director of Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative, Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, was on Tuesday killed by unknown gunmen at the Alapere end of the Ibrahim Babangida Bridge.
Agbeyegbe was found dead in his BMW 5 series car, registered DB 244 EKY, near the Oando filling station at the Alapere end of the bridge at 3:05 am.
Although the police said it was a case of �lone accident,� a view of the gray saloon car revealed a bullet hole on the passenger side of the front windshield, suggesting that the driver was aimed at and shot from the right side of the vehicle.
The scene of the accident was about 200 metres away from the Alapere Police Station. Sources told our correspondents that shortly after the shooting, an Incident Duty policeman on duty visited the scene only to discover that it was an accident.
Our correspondents gathered that the policeman immediately returned to the station to alert his colleagues, who followed him to the scene where it was discovered that the dead driver was in company with a woman, who was said to be unconscious.
The police initially took his corpse to the General Hospital, Isolo. His family and the management of the Kings Airline, a charter aviation company where he had worked as a pilot, however, later moved his remains to Eko Hospital mortuary.
The woman, identified as Juliet Okonkwo, sources further disclosed, was taken to the police station and kept in a cell where she later regained consciousness.
When our correspondent visited the woman in the cell, she said, �My name is Juliet Okonkwo. I live with my friends at 13, Ogunsami Street, Ijesha, Lagos. I am 27 years old.
�I was in Victoria Island when the man stopped and picked me. I know him because he usually drives round that area.
�I did not know when the accident happened because I was asleep. I only woke up this morning and found myself in the cell here. It was then I recollected what happened before the accident.�
Agbeyegbe�s car was found at the Alapere Divisional Police station when our correspondents visited the place on Tuesday.
The car had bloodstains all over the front seat area and the driver�s side was badly damaged.
One of Agbeyegbe�s colleagues and Chairman, Board of NASI, Capt. Pam Dung, described the death of the pilot as a big shock.
�Jerry is not a rough driver. He doesn�t drink when he drives. I would have found it difficult to believe that he was dead if not that it was his son that informed me of the development.�
Agbeyegbe�s younger brother, Leon Agbeyegbe, said he would not react on the development until the police and autopsy reports were issued.
The Divisional Police Officer of Alapere Police Station, Mr. Gabriel Udoh, insisted that it was the police command�s spokesman, Mr. Emmanuel Ighodalo, that could speak to the press on the matter.
When contacted, Ighodalo said policemen from Alapere Police Station were alerted by a sudden noise and they promptly went to the scene only to discover that it was an accident. He said that the state police boss, Mr. Israel Ajao, had ordered immediate investigation into the incident and that the woman should be kept in custody.
Agbeyegbe was from the Itsekiri-Urhobo family in Delta State.
He started his flying carrier in 1974 at the Lagos Flying Club, where he eventually got his Private Pilot�s Licence before proceeding to Miami, Florida, United Stares of America, for his professional pilots training programme.
A graduate of Burnside-Ott Aviation Training Center, Miami, Florida, Agbeyegbe held an Airline Transport Pilots Licence with full Instructors� Rating issued by the United State Federal aviation Administration.
He was also a graduate of the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, where he qualified as an Airspace Systems Inspection Pilot and an Instrument Enroute and Approach Procedure Development Specialist.
As a pilot, he worked in highly sensitive and controversial operation such as the presidential fleet, Nigeria Airways and Russian Operation.
He also worked with the Mobil Aviation and Bristow Helicopter, where he was rated on Beechcraft 1900D and Dornier 328.
