August 15, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday paid tribute to one of the pioneer pilots in Nigerian aviation, Captain Rufus Adetunji Orimoloye, who has died, aged 89 years old.
The President, in a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, saluted the many decades of commitment of the late pioneer pilot to the aviation sector.
Late Captain Orimoloye had trained as a pilot between 1954 and 1956 in the United Kingdom.
He returned home to ply his trade, first with West African Airways, and later Nigerian Airways for 26 years.
President Buhari recalls that Captain Orimoloye flew with the Presidential Fleet, and was also Chief Flight Instructor and Director at Zaria Flight School between 1986 and 1988.
According to the President, late Captain Orimoloye’s contributions 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 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”
He further prayed that the “Odofin Ayedun of Akure will rest well, while seeking God’s comfort for all those who mourn him.”
