The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the National Assembly and the international community to investigate the remote and the immediate circumstances surrounding the death of Nigeria’s first female combat pilot, Tolulope Arotile.

HURIWA in a statement by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, its National Coordinator and Miss Zainab Yusuf, National Media Affairs Director, said its call for a comprehensive and forensic investigation on the cause of her death is inspired by the suspicion that the official narrative given to Nigerians about her death “does appear like a tale by moonlight and a made up story because it is not scientific and not satisfactory” to many who are already insinuating that she may have been killed for a reason known only to her killers and their sponsors.

“In a normal civilized constitutional democracy, when such a suspicious death occur , it is incumbent that Government must investigate legally. This kind of story told about her death is not acceptable by any sane person.

“The story of how she died as told by the Air Force has made Nigeria to look like a banana republic, a place where the sanctity and sacredness of a human person is not respected.

“We are therefore calling on Nigerian Government to setup a medical/forensic/ballistic investigation team to ascertain the actual cause of her death. We also want Amnesty International to look into her death.

HURIWA also condemned the Inspector General of Police and the Rivers state Commissioner of Police for sending armed operatives to the house of the immediate past Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh, to embarrass, harass and intimidate her person, adding that Joy Nunieh must not be killed.