Vice-president’s helicopter crash-lands but all safe
Published:Sunday | February 3, 2019 | 12:00 AM
JOHANNESBURG (AP):
A helicopter carrying Nigeria’s vice-president crash-landed on its side yesterday but he and the crew were unscathed.
“We are safe and sound!” Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo tweeted after the crash in Kabba in Kogi state.
He said that the crew managed the situation well and linked to a video of himself later waving to supporters from a vehicle.
He told a crowd: “We are extremely grateful to the Lord for preserving our lives.”
Local media outletSahara Reporters published photos of the upturned helicopter, its rotor blades smashed. Other local media published footage, shot with a mobile phone, that showed passengers carefully emerging and being helped down into a waiting crowd at the dusty scene.
The vice-president is often on the road campaigning. Nigeria’s presidential election is on February 16 and President Muhammadu Buhari seeks a second term at the head of Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer.
In a break from the heated campaigning, rival presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar told the vice-president he was “happy to note” that everyone was safe.