For Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle, the Nigerian Air Force has been both a family tradition and the source of an unimaginable personal loss. Twenty years after losing her father, Wing Commander E.O. Adekunle, in a military aircraft crash, she has now lost her husband, Squadron Leader Ahamefule Aham Man-Ugwueje, in……
For Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle, the Nigerian Air Force has been both a family tradition and the source of an unimaginable personal loss.
Twenty years after losing her father, Wing Commander E.O. Adekunle, in a military aircraft crash, she has now lost her husband, Squadron Leader Ahamefule Aham Man-Ugwueje, in another Nigerian Air Force crash.
The first tragedy came on September 17, 2006.
A Nigerian Air Force Dornier 228-212 carrying senior military officers crashed at Oko in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State, killing 13 military personnel.
The officers were travelling to Obudu in Cross River State for a retreat when the aircraft went down. Contemporary accounts described the crash as one of the military’s major tragedies of that period.
Among those reportedly killed was Wing Commander E.O. Adekunle, who was serving as the aircraft’s co-pilot and left behind a family to mourn his death.
Two decades later, tragedy would return to the same family.
On September 19, 2026, Flight Lieutenant Damilola Adekunle married Squadron Leader Ahamefule Aham Man-Ugwueje, a fellow Nigerian Air Force officer, at a ceremony in Abuja.
The couple’s wedding took place at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, The Masters Place, in Utako, with the reception at the Nigerian Army Conference Centre in Asokoro. Photographs and details from the ceremony were subsequently shared by vendors involved in the event.
Just 16 days later, on October 5, tragedy struck again.
Man-Ugwueje was among the 25 people killed when Nigerian Air Force aircraft NAF 931 crashed in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State while on a routine mission from Benin City to Lagos.
The Squadron Leader was one of the aircraft’s co-pilots. The Nigerian Air Force subsequently confirmed that all 25 people aboard the aircraft died.
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The tragedy means that Adekunle, who lost her father in a military aircraft crash in 2006, has now lost her husband in another military aircraft accident, two decades later.
Her husband’s death has also deepened the loss for another Nigerian Air Force family. Man-Ugwueje was identified as the son of retired Group Captain Man-Ugwueje.
Two Air Force families. Two generations. Two aircraft tragedies.
For Adekunle, what should have been the beginning of a new chapter in her life has instead become another painful connection to the dangers of military service.
Her father’s generation was lost in the skies in 2006.
Twenty years later, her husband was lost in another military aircraft.
And in between those two tragedies was a daughter who followed her father’s footsteps into the Nigerian Air Force — only to suffer a loss eerily similar to the one that shaped her childhood.
The story is a reminder of the personal cost carried by families of military personnel, where duty can demand sacrifices that extend far beyond the officers who wear the uniform.
