Kafayat Sanni And Tolulope Arotile Becomes First Female Fighter, Helicopter NAF Pilots [Photos]

The Nigerian Air Force has winged 13 new pilots among them is its first female combat fighter pilot, its first female combat helicopter pilot, and its first female Air Warrant Officer.

The first female fighter (combatant) pilot winged is Flying Officer Kafayat Sanni and the first female helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile.

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According to the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, the two female pilots completed their training courses in the United States of America and South Africa.

The two were decorated alongside the first female Air Warrant Officer (AWO), Grace Garba, and 10 0ther officers at the NAF headquarters in Abuja.

KanyiDaily had reported that the promotion of Grace Garba made her to be the first female senior non-commissioned Officer to be promoted to the highest rank in the non-commissioned officers’ cadre in the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Since the force was established on April 18, 1964, Garba is the first female Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) promoted to the highest rank in the Non-Commissioned Officers’ cadre.

Sanni and Arotile were admitted to the Nigerian Airforce on the 22nd of December 2012 and became an officer in the force on the 16th of September, 2017.

Sanni said her success was borne out of a passion for doing what has been stereotyped to be a man’s job.

While Arotile said being a military personnel has been her longtime ambition because she admires “the carriage and what the force stands for.”

The decoration of the officers will bring the total number of wing pilots to 105 in the past four years.