President Muhammadu Buhari has lauded one of the pioneer pilots in Nigerian aviation, Captain Rufus Adetunji Orimoloye, who has taken his ‘last flight,’ aged 89.
The President saluted the many decades of commitment to the aviation sector by the departed, who trained as a pilot between 1954 and 1956 in the United Kingdom, and then returned home to ply his trade, first with West African Airways, and later Nigerian Airways for 26 years.
President Buhari recalled that Captain Orimoloye flew with the Presidential Fleet, and was also Chief Flight Instructor and Director at Zaria Flight School between 1986 and 1988.
He says the contributions of the departed will remain evergreen in the annals of the aviation industry in the country, a fact already attested to by his being bestowed with the MFR National Honour in 2009, and also the 50th Anniversary Award of International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO).
The President prayed that the Odofin Ayedun of Akure will rest well, while seeking God’s comfort for all those who mourn him.