The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has immortalised the former principal of Bethlehem Girls’ College, Late Rev. Sister Henrietta Alokha.
NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, made this known in a statement on Friday.
Alokha died while rescuing her students during the pipeline explosion at Abule-Ado in Lagos on March 15.
Daramola said the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, unveiled a plaque in Alokha’s honour and named the newly constructed 500-capacity assembly hall at the Air Force Secondary School (AFSS), NAF Base Shasha, Lagos after her.
Abubakar, who was represented by AVM Lawal Alao, the Air Officer Commanding Logistics Command (AOC LC), said that Alokha was being immortalised for her selfless efforts in the propagation of learning and service to humanity.
The CAS noted that it was appropriate that a facility such as the Assembly Hall in an institution of learning and character development should be named after someone who had dedicated her life to educating future leaders.
“We remember her for her actions during the Abule-Ado petroleum pipeline explosion which eventually culminated in a fire incident at the Bethlehem Girls’ College.
“Reverend Sister Henrietta made the ultimate sacrifice on March 15, while evacuating her students from the fire caused by the explosion at the school.
“Her bravery on that day paid off as no student of the college was lost to the deadly incident,” he said.
Sister Monica Rowland, the Superior-General of the Congregation of Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SSH), the Order which Alokha belonged, expressed her profound appreciation to the NAF for the honour done to late Alokha.
She expressed hope that Alokha’s death would be a lesson for leaders to be ready to make sacrifices.
