16th December, 2012
.And Governor Fashola too
Eromosele Ebhomele
The National Leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and candidate of the party in the last presidential election, General Muhammadu Buhari, has suspended the celebration of his 70th birthday anniversary to mourn those who lost their lives in a helicopter crash that occurred in Bayelsa state on Saturday.
The helicopter conveying the governor of Kaduna state, Patrick Yakowa, immediate past National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi and four others had crashed in a creek on their way to the Port Harcourt airport from the burial ceremony of the father of President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Oronto Douglas.
Buhari in a statement signed by CPC’s National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, said the incident was a monumental tragedy and a big loss too the nation.
In order to honour the deceased, Buhari instructed that all activities to mark his 70th birthday scheduled for Monday, 16 December, 2012 at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, be postponed indefinitely.
Buhari, who commiserated with the immediate families of the deceased, the government of Bayelsa and Kaduna states and the people of the states, said the incident has ushered in ” another difficult time for the Nation and calls for sober reflection.”
He prayed that God would grant all concerned the fortitude to bear the irreplaceable loss.
In Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Sunday cancelled all his engagements to reflect on the import of the tragedy to the national psyche occasioned by the death, in a helicopter crash, of the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Patrick Yakowa and the immediate past National Security Adviser to the President, General Andrew Azazi which he described as shocking and horrific.
Governor Yakowa and General Azazi lost their lives when a helicopter they were flying in from Bayelsa State to Port Harcourt after attending the burial of the father of the Presidential Adviser on Research, Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, crash into Koroba forest in Bayelsa State killing all on board.
Saying such losses need to be avoided, 
Recalling his very recent encounter with the two deceased personalities, Governor Fashola said, “It is really horrific and I am simply horrified not only because of the lives lost or the personalities involved. This is one of the losses we don’t really need; in my view, this kind of tragedy is avoidable”.
“I just begin to reflect on the things Governor Yakowa and I promised to do together; I was supposed to visit him in Kaduna. There were places he wanted us to cooperate. I saw General Azazi just last weekend when we launched the Monopoly Board and he said look Tunde we have to see over Christmas and I said I would see to it. And now to think that all those things are not going to happen because they have lost their lives in very avoidable accident, it is simply horrifying”, the Governor said.
He said he had to cancel all his engagements for Sunday in order to reflect on the import of the tragedy to the national psyche adding, “People are not dying out of disease or failure of healthcare. We are losing people in air traffic accidents, in road traffic accidents which we can control”.