Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has honoured Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot late flying officer Tolulope Arotile.
Arotile bagged the posthumous award on Saturday during the Royal African Young Leadership Forum 2021 held at Oduduwa Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
She contributed significantly to combat operations against insurgents in the north.
Two years into her career, Arotile had acquired 460 hours of helicopter flight, which was an outstanding performance for a combat pilot.
Arotile died on July 14, 2020 as a result of head injuries sustained in an accident at the Nigerian Air Force Base in Kaduna State, when she was inadvertently hit by the vehicle of a former classmate.
