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Fashola speaks on Naira Marley, Executive Jets flight scandal
BY NICHOLAS ABE
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has frowned at attempt to drag his name into the scandalous flight operated by Executive Jets Services Limited, which had controversial singer, Naira Marley, on board.
Naira Marley and his crew had been flown on an Executive Jets chartered flight on Saturday, from Lagos to Abuja where they performed at a musical concert at Jabi Mall, Abuja, and thereafter back to Lagos.
The flight, according to the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika, was not approved for Marley, but for Honourable Justice Adefope Okogie, from Lagos to Abuja and then back to Lagos, for an official assignment.
Consequently, the airline has had its operation suspended for violating the approval given to it under strict compliance of the COVID-19 guidelines, especially as it affected the closure of the nation’s airspace to non-essential services, Sirika said.
In a letter of apology, dated 15th June 2020, to the Minister of Aviation, the airline Chairman/CEO Dr Sam Iwuajoku said he thought it was the Works Minister, Babatunde Fashola, whose name was on the list when he checked the flight manifest.
“As a rule, passenger manifest is always sent to me before departure, when I went through the manifest and saw FASHOLA BABATUNDE, I thought it was the Honourable Minister of Works going to Abuja with his men,” Iwuajoku claimed.
READ: Naira Marley, airline ‘impersonate’ Babatunde Fashola
The manifest had listed Naira Marley whose real name is Azeez Fashola, as “Fashola Babatunde”.
But in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja to clear his name, the Minister of Works and Housing Mr Babatunde Fashola, said he had not left Abuja since March 22, 2020.
“For purposes of clarity and in order to set the records straight, the Hon. Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, has not travelled out of Abuja since March 22, 2020, when he returned there after an inspection tour of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway construction work and a visit to Lagos, before the lockdown.
“The decision of the Hon. Minister not to travel was taken in strict compliance with the Federal Government’s ban on inter-state travels as part of efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser, Communications to minister Fashola, said in the statement.
He added: “It is therefore ridiculous for Dr Iwuajoku to attempt to link the Hon. Minister with any non-compliant flight.”