Musician, Azeez Fashola aka Naira Marley, has lambasted the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Executive Jets Services Limited, Sam Iwuajoku, for calling his team “a bunch of useless people”.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the airline was suspended by the Federal Government for flying the musician and his team to Abuja to attend a concert.



The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika had announced the suspension during a Presidential Task Force briefing in Abuja on Monday.

Subsequently, the Chairman of the airline wrote a letter of apology to the minister explaining the circumstances surrounding the flight.

In the letter dated June 15, 2020, Iwuajoku said he gave the approval for the flight thinking the passenger was the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

The letter read in part, “Please the flight was to carry a judge to Abuja on Sunday, 14th, June 2020 as requested and the 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 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 manifests are 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. 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.”

READ ALSO: 2020 admission: JAMB announces cut-off marks for varsities, others

But reacting via his Twitter handle on Tuesday afternoon, Naira Marley said, “Do you know that over 20,000 Marlians travel with executive jets a month? We won’t be using your useless airline again for calling us useless.



“Thank God we didn’t crash on that flight because we nearly did.”

The artiste added that his crew didn’t book the flight directly.

Earlier, Iwuajoku told our correspondent in a telephone interview that the flight was booked by a broker.

Meanwhile, a copy of the manifest of the flight sighted by our correspondent confirmed that the name, Babatunde Fashola, was a passenger on the flight.

Awón Marlians.