The African Democratic Congress has urged the Federal Government to investigate the funds allocated and released for the maintenance of Nigerian Air Force aircraft following Monday’s fatal crash in Ondo State.
The party said the aircraft’s maintenance records and the government’s spending on military aviation should be scrutinised as part of the ongoing inquiry into the incident.
In a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, sympathised with the relatives of those who lost their lives in the crash.
The opposition party said it would not speculate on the cause of the accident while investigations were ongoing, but insisted that maintenance and procurement records should not be excluded from the probe.
According to the ADC, government records showed that only N4.5bn, about 13 per cent of the N34.71bn budgeted for NAF aircraft maintenance, had been released by December 2025.
The party compared this with the Presidential Air Fleet, for which it said N20.27bn out of an approved N20.74bn had been released for maintenance during the same period.
The ADC argued that the difference in funding raised concerns about the priority given to military aircraft used by personnel involved in national security operations.
It urged the government to conduct an audit covering maintenance allocations, actual disbursements, expenditure, procurement and servicing of NAF aircraft, saying the exercise could help establish whether equipment-related issues contributed to the crash.
The party also stressed that accountability in military spending was necessary to prevent similar incidents and improve the safety of personnel operating aircraft under demanding conditions.
The ATR-42 aircraft, operated by the Nigerian Air Force, crashed in the Igbokoda area of Ilaje Local Government Area on Monday during a mission from Benin, Edo State, to Lagos. The cause of the crash had not been officially established as of Tuesday.
