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Following the indefinite suspension placed on the operations of Executive Jets Services (ExecuJet) by the Ministry of Aviation on Monday, the management of the flight company has apologised for misleading the ministry on the identity of the passengers it flew to Abuja from Lagos last Saturday.
The (ExecuJet) management said he mistook the soapy crooner ,Azeez Fashola pka “Naira Marley” for the minister of works Mr Babatunde Fashola , saying they don’t know they were carrying “bunch of useless people”
In a letter sent to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the Chairman of the company, Sam Iwuajoku, apologized for the flight and disclosed that the aircraft was to carry a judge to Abuja on Sunday as requested and a permit was granted based on the application.
According to the ExecuJet boss, when he called the Judge on Saturday morning to inform him that the flight had been secured, he found that the Judge was already in Abuja via a different flight.
He said, “On Saturday morning, my staff called me that they had a charter flight to Abuja and that the passengers were 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 he is a serving minister of the country. 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.”
Recall that on Monday that the Ministry of Aviation announced the indefinite suspension of ExecuJet airline for false information and for flying Naira Marley to Abuja for a concert contrary to the federal government’s interstate travel ban.
While the company will be fined, the Flight Captain will also be sanctioned for providing false information. Sirika said that the airline had used the approval granted for a legal flight operation to convey Naira Marley to Abuja for an illegal concert.
ExecuJet has operations in six regions – Africa, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East – embracing a workforce of more than 750 experienced staff.
Abass Latifat
