Ex-Kogi governor reveals how Femi Fani-Kayode kills his airline business

Ex-governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Ichalla Wada has revealed that the aviation policy of the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode killed his EAS airlines and other ones owned by Nigerians in the country.

In an interview, Wada, who governed Kogi State for four years, said Jimoh Ibrahim, an acclaimed businessman finished what Fani-Kayode started which ended his airline business.

The EAS Airlines which was owned by the former governor lost one of its planes in a crash in 2002, and was unable to raise the N2 billion capitalisation money stipulated by Femi-Kayode’s policy at the time.

In his narrative, Wada said his airline was flying from Lagos to Kano and Jos crashed and some people died.

According to him, hot weather affected the Airbus which likely affected the engine before it went down, adding that the intensity of the heat could be responsible for engine failure anytime.

“The pilot was well experienced. Investigations indicated that it was a very hot day; hence the intensity of the heat impacted on the plane and perhaps led to engine failure, which can happen anytime.

“We lost the airplane. It was a trying moment for us. The government grounded all the airplanes in our fleet and they rotted away.

He explained that investigations carried out on them by government with regards to the air accident did not find them culpable of negligence which they were cleared.

“We had qualified pilots and our licenses were up-to-date, but the damage was done. For about seven months, we were out of operation. But we were determined to continue.

“We started negotiation and paid all the compensations according to the rule because our aircraft was insured in London.

“They sent their assessors and lawyers to help us on how to pay compensations. Everybody was paid. We decided to lease aircraft to start again.

”We kept our employees on 50 per cent salaries for about 8 months. After that, we leased a 737 and started our operations. Because of our reputation we were able to attract patronage. Within a year, we had two airplanes in operation.

“By 2007, Fani Kayode became the minister of aviation and made the rule that you must capitalise and have N2 billion in your bank for you to be allowed to operate an airline in the country.

“He said if you wanted to fly domestic, you must have N500million in the bank; West Africa, N1billion and international, N2 billion.

“We said we had enough operating funds to keep our operations going and did not need to have N2 billion in the bank, but he insisted that unless we had an evidence of N2 billion in our account, we would not operate. That was how Jimoh Ibrahim approached us and promised to inject money and buy new airplanes for us to expand the business. We negotiated with our lawyers and accountants and agreed.

“He said he would take 60 per cent of the company while we kept 40 per cent. That was how NICON Airways was formed. He said we should change our names to NICON Airways and we did so, but he never paid us the money he was supposed to pay us.

“We still tried to run the airline, hoping that he would fulfill his obligation, but he never injected money into the airline. That was how we were betrayed and we lost everything.”