NAF 930, 931 And The Cost Of Turning Military Aircraft Into Uber For Powerful Civilians

“I cursed the man who told my daddy a military plane was going to Lagos.” That was the caption on a video I watched last night. The lady in the video had lost her brother in the recent plane crash.

She is a sister to Ukeme David, a student of Akwa Ibom State University, who was one of the 25 Nigerians who died on Monday, October 5, 2026, in a swamp in Igbokoda, Ondo State. According to her, Ukeme had travelled to Benin to see their father, who she said was sick. During the visit, someone told him that a military aircraft would be going to Lagos. Since Ukeme was heading for the same city, his father helped him board the flight. Unfortunately, the young student and others never made it to Lagos.

Importantly, Ukeme was not the only civilian on that flight. At least five of the 25 victims were civilians, including Mrs Ezeh Nneka, Godstmine Tarabina, Joy Micheal, Sunday Micheal, Ukeme David himself and Gideon Omotola.

The aircraft that killed them, Nigerian Air Force 931, was not supposed to be carrying most of them. It was not a commercial airliner nor a chartered jet. It was an ATR-42-500MP Maritime Patrol Aircraft – a surveillance plane bought with taxpayers’ money to hunt oil thieves and pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. Its belly carries maritime search radar and electro-optical sensors, not luxury seats for VIPs and their families.

Yet for years, that surveillance plane and its twin sister, NAF 930, have lived a double life. Officially, they belong to the 81 Air Maritime Group in Benin, Edo State. Unofficially, they have become an expensive Uber in Nigeria for powerful civilians, their families and their girlfriends.

Until Monday’s crash, Nigeria operated two ATR-42-500MP aircraft with tail numbers NAF 930 and NAF 931. Both were configured primarily for maritime patrol and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. They can also perform search-and-rescue and limited transport duties.

The aircraft were part of a $73 million contract signed in March 2007 under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and delivered in 2010 under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, according to SaharaReporters.

The contract was between the Nigerian government and Alenia Aeronautica (now Leonardo of Italy) for two ATR-42MP aircraft, including crew training, logistics and spare parts. Nigeria became the first export customer for the type. Before Nigeria, only the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the Italian Coast Guard operated it.

SaharaReporters further stated that the aircraft were delivered brand new in “green” configuration from ATR’s facility in Toulouse, France, before being converted to the maritime patrol configuration at Alenia’s plants in Brindisi and Turin-Caselle, Italy.

While the first aircraft, NAF 930, was delivered in December 2009, the second aircraft, NAF 931, which crashed last Monday was formally delivered on March 29, 2010.

They were both fitted with the Selex Galileo ATOS (Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance System), search radar, and electro-optical sensors. However, on October 15, 2022, NAF 930 made history as the first aircraft to land at the newly built Ekiti Cargo Airport. The ATR-42-500MP was deployed to commission the facility – a role typically reserved for Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority calibration aircraft, not a maritime patrol plane. On board was the then Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

The Nation newspaper reported it plainly: “The flight with registration number NAF 930 belonging to the Nigerian Air Force landed at the airport around 10:20 am.” A maritime patrol aircraft was used to cut a ribbon. That is not inter-agency support, that is abuse.

More damning is a video now circulating on social media. In it, a civilian woman is seen lounging inside the cabin of NAF 930, filming herself and others mid-air like an influencer on a private jet. While social media users allege they are all related to the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, what matters is not their names but their presence. What were civilians and reportedly family members of a highly connected person doing inside an ISR platform? Who cleared them? Who fuelled the aircraft for that trip?

This is not an isolated incident. Multiple online posts by civilians I have seen after the crash, claiming to have flown NAF 931, point to a pattern where family members and associates of the powerful treat military ISR assets as personal shuttles.

The crashed aircraft had returned from Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) in Germany in December 2024 after three years in storage. According to SaharaReporters, since its return, the aircraft was deployed for “VIP movement, airlifting of students and personnel and other operational duties.”

On its last day, it did not fly from Benin to Lagos as the NAF claimed.

“The aircraft left Abuja on Sunday, October 4, carrying passengers who were to disembark in Benin before proceeding to Lagos. It developed an engine fault in Benin and was grounded overnight. It was worked upon by technicians overnight and took off Monday morning for Lagos before crashing minutes after take-off,” SaharaReporters quoted a military source as saying.

If an aircraft developed a fault overnight, why was it cleared to carry 20 passengers the next morning?

We have normalised this anomaly. We have allowed military aircraft and helicopters that should be fighting terrorists, bandits and oil thieves across the country to become an airline for non-military personnel and their families.

These military assets were bought to fight terrorism. NAF 930 and NAF 931 were bought to fight oil theft that costs Nigeria billions of dollars annually. Instead, they fight traffic for politicians, non-military personnel and their families.

When we turn military maritime planes into luxury shuttles for lovers and loyalists, we do not just waste money. We degrade readiness. We erode discipline. We create a system where maintenance is rushed because a VIP or his family members must not miss a wedding and where a pilot is pressured to fly an aircraft that should be grounded.

The crash in Igbokoda was not an accident. It was an inevitability. It was the logical conclusion of a system that prioritises the comfort of the powerful and their companions over the safety of the crew.

Until the Nigerian government audits the flight logs of NAF 930 and 931 and until the Chief of the Air Staff explains to Nigerians why maritime patrol aircraft were carrying civilians, the blood of those 25 victims will remain on our collective conscience. We cannot afford a military that fights for VIPs and their families instead of fighting for us. May the souls of the departed rest in peace.

Temitope Yakubu is a Nigerian based in Cardiff, United Kingdom.