Controversy, as Aviation Activist, Agbeyegbe, Dies at 49
By Ndubuisi Francis and Oghenekevwe Laba
Foremost aviation safety activist, Capt Jerry Agbeygbe died under controversial circumstances yesterday morning.
Though police claim Agbeyegbe, 49, died at about 3 am in an auto crash at the Alapere, Ketu area of Lagos, but symapthisers, including family members of the deceased and professional colleagues who trooped to the Alapere Police station in the Ketu area of Lagos where his corpse was first taken to, found that the car in which he met his death was ridden with bullets. The pilot's body also has a bullet hole on the chest.
Lagos State Police Command's Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Emmanuel Ighodalo, a Superintendent of Police (SP), who confirmed the death said the police did not know anything about speculations making the round that he may have been shot dead.
Ighodalo said the late pilot, who was coming from Victoria Island and was heading to Alapere in Ketu, in company of a lady identified as Juliet Okonkwo ran into a culvert and died instantly in his BMW car with registration number DB 244 EKY.
According to the police spokesman, the lady in the late pilot's company when he died, was unconscious after the crash was later revived at the police station where the car is still being kept.
Ighodalo said the lady told the police that she and Agbeyegbe were heavily drunk and that they were going somewhere in Alapere to have fun.
He added that while the body of Agbeyegbe has been deposited in the morgue, Ms Okonkwo has already made useful statements to the police on the incident.
He said the BMW car with which the pilot was involved in the accident was still at the Alapere Police Station, Ketu.
However, when newsmen, sympathisers, professional colleagues and the family of the deceased visited the police station soon after the news of his death was broken, the discovery was shocking.
The BMW 5 series in which he met his death did not have any sign of a fatal accident. A bullet that was ostensibly fired directly into his chest pierced through the windscreen before meeting the target.
The car's dashboard and the steering were intact. The car had only one of the tyres flattened and a damaged front bumper. Apart from the hole on the chest possibly arising from the bullet, there were no other bruises or injuries on the body of the late pilot.
Although the police said the deceased was with a lady who claimed both of them were drunk before the tragic incident occurred, Agbeyegbe's son said his father was still working on his personal computer up to about 2.30 a.m.
This raises doubt on the police claim that Agbeyegbe and his supposed companion, were involved in the accident as a result of their drunkenness and that reportedly occurred at 3 am.
Doubts were also raised on why, after the 'accident', the remains of the deceased was not deposited at any of the nearby morgues at either the Ikeja General Hospital or the one at Gbagada but was instead taken to Isolo.
Efforts by newsmen to speak with the supposed companion of the deceased were rebuffed by the police in Alapere who claimed she was being detained at the Area F Police Station.
Investigations by THISDAY showed that the late Agbeyegbe who until his death was a pilot with King Air was scheduled to fly that morning and had actually left his house in the 1004 flats on Victoria Island, Lagos enroute the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.
The deceased's family, friends and colleagues who were at the police station yesterday prevailed on the police authorities to move the corpse from the Isolo General Hospital to Eko Hospital in Maryland, Lagos where an autopsy is expected to be carried out soon.
Born on July 14, 1955 in Delta State to Itsekiri parents, Agbeyegbe was until his death the Founder/Executive Director of the Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI).
He was the most vocal voice in the nation's aviation industry, championing the cause of aviation safety as well as campaigning against unwholesome practices and government's inactions.
He was also a former President of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).
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