By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Chairman of Executive Jets Services, Sam Iwuajoku, has apologized to the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hadi Sirika, for his company flying unauthorized persons to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from Lagos.
He said when he saw the flight manifest with the name of Babatunde Fashola, he thought he was the minister for works and housing that was traveling to Abuja with his staff. He said he didn’t know they were bunch of useless people.
The passengers turned out to be a singer, Naira Marley, and a former housemate of the Big Brother Naija, Kim Oprah.
Naira Marley’s birth name is Azeez Fashola. Observers say it was not a coincidence that the flight manifest bears the name of Babatude Fashola. The intention, they say, was to mislead any approving authority into thinking that the passenger was the former governor of Lagos State, whose surname is similar to Naira Marley’s.
“I thought it was the Honourable Minister of Works going to Abuja with his men, so we decided to do the flight since he is a serving minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I didn’t know that it was a bunch of useless people,” he said.
This is the second time Naira Marley has been found violating rules aimed at protecting Nigerians from the COVID-19 spread.
In April, he attended a birthday party at a time the government says people should not congregate. He got away with it, while the host of the party, Funke Akindele, was convicted, and sentence to some months of community service.
