"What Tolulope Atorile told me on phone 4 hours before her death" – Father

“Flying Officer Arotile died on July 14, 2020 at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her.

It has now been revealed that the 24 year old Tolulope Atorile, who died at the Nigerian Air Force Base in Kaduna State on Tuesday, was hit by a car driven by a former classmate who wanted to greet her.

Until her death, Tolulope Arotile was Nigeria’s first female combat pilot.

It was gathered that the unnamed ex-classmate was reversing the car when it hit Tolulope Arotile who immediately fell and hit her head on the tarmac, leading to her death.

Akintunde Arotile, the father of Tolulope Arotile, the first Nigerian female combat pilot, who died in an accident on Tuesday has opened up on his last encounter with her.

In a chat with Gbenga Odogun, Tolulope Arotile’s dad, Akintunde Arotile said “…I just thank God that she was able to achieve her dreams as a baby before her death.”

Recounting their last encounter, he said “Just yesterday (Tuesday), at about 1pm, I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina.

They gave them one week to rest and so she was sleeping and she told me she was in bed resting. She said she would later go out to make some photocopies and I told her not to stay long and to return home on time because she was staying with my first daughter in Kaduna.

Around 5.30 pm, somebody called me and asked if I had called her and I said yes. Then the person told me to call her which I did, but there no response. So, I called her colleagues. 

They were all crying on the phone.  I asked what happened, but they were just crying.

I called one of her bosses who told me that she was in the mortuary and I said Ha! Somebody I spoke with four hours ago and by 5 pm she was in the mortuary. I had to drive to Lokoja from Abuja to enable me to inform her mother physically because I could not break such news on the phone. When I got there, she had gone to the prayer mountain. She came back at 8.30pm and I told her what I heard, but had not confirmed.”