President Muhammadu Buhari has mourned the first Nigerian pilot, Captain Festus Adetunji Orimoloye, who took his ‘last flight’ at the age of 89.

President Buhari, in a release by his Media Adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, lauded the many decades of Orimoloye’s commitment to the aviation sector.

Buhari said that the deceased trained as a pilot between 1954 and 1956 in the United Kingdom, before returning home to ply his trade, first with West African Airways, and later Nigerian Airways for 26 years.

The President recalled that Orimoloye flew with the Presidential Fleet, and was also Chief Flight Instructor and Director at Zaria Flight School between 1986 and 1988.

According to him, the contributions of the late pilot would remain evergreen in the annals of the country’s aviation industry, a fact already attested to by his being bestowed with the MFR, a national honour in 2009, and also the 50th Anniversary Award of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The President prayed that the Odofin Ayedun of Akure would rest well, while seeking God’s comfort for all those who mourn him.