Dr Sam Iwuajoku, chairman and chief executive of Executive Jets Services Limited, has described Naira Marley and his crew as “bunch of useless people”, claiming he was conned.
The Nigerian musician and his crew flew Executive Jets Services airline to Abuja flouting the COVID-19 guidelines by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
According to the Iwuajoku, Naira Marley shares same names with Honourable Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, which was the name on the manifest sent to him.
Reacting to the suspension of his airline by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, Iwuajoku said, “We hereby apologize for the above flight, with your permit ref: FMA/ATMD/0175/V/V/1268 dated 11th June 2020.
He then went on to explain what he claimed to have happened. “Please the flight was to carry a judge to Abuja on Sunday 14th 2020 as requested and permit was granted based on the application but unfortunately when I called the judge on Saturday morning to inform him that we have the permit, he then said that he has reached Abuja already with a different flight that someone gave him a lift to Abuja.
“So on Saturday morning 13th June 2020, my staff called me that they have a charter flight to Abuja and that the passengers are already in the lounge as a rule passenger manifest is always sent to me before any departure, when I went through the manifest and I saw FASHOLA BABATUNDE, I thought it was the Honourable Minister of Works going to Abuja with his men, so we decided to do the flight since it is a serving minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I didn’t know that it was a bunch of useless people.
“We are very sorry for this mistake and we promise that this would not happen again.
The Nigerian government has also shut the Jabi Lake Mall where Naira Marley performed.