Following yesterday plane crash, a former Executive Director of Air Nigeria has come out to issue a stern warning to the Nigerian public who uses Air Nigeria as their flight of choice, to desist from doing using that. According to John Nnorom who was a former Executive Director Finance of Air Nigeria to stop until the aircraft being used by the airlines for its flight operations are being put in order.

In an open and blazing warning made through a passionate appeal, the former Executive Director who until April 1, 2012 was the ED in charge of Finance before throwing in the towel, apportioned blame on the business mogul Jimoh Ibrahim of having no interest company’s aircrafts maintenance.

According to him he said that he and some of the verifying Engineers face a lot of threats of elimination by the airline’s owner Jimoh Ibrahim if they dare make known this covert to Nigerians.

However, in his report he said that ahead of his resignation, he forwarded a strong letter to the company citing that he prefer to die rather than seen over hundreds of Nigerian souls perish in an aircraft called Air Nigeria.

According to him, Air Nigeria is in a deep pecuniary crisis as result of the  N35.5 Billion money loaned by Bank of Industry has been sidetracked into Jimoh Ibrahim’s NICON INVESTMENT LTD, which is also a non-finance company popularly called wonder bank, which has also hindered air safety and adding that there awaits a ruinous air crash of air Nigeria any moment from now if care is not taken.

He went to lament that in early this years January 2012, all the licensed Licensed Engineers working in Air Nigeria embark on an industrial action due to the fact that they were being obligated to endorse flabby aircraft into the air, however that yet another strike was prevented in March 2012 with the prior interference of the DG-NCAA, Harold Demureen. According to Mr. Nnorom the two events were as a result of not a success to meet up Safety Standard, and that these are even information which is provable which the public are sentient of.

However, he raised pertinent questions which he said are facts; why are Air Nigeria flights occasionally belated for as several times as eight hours?  According to the petitioner, that is because the aircraft for that flight is not ready.  “While passengers are waiting, engineers are battling to put the aircraft on Air.  Several times our Aircraft on Runway taxing to takeoff, turns back to offload passengers due to some technical faults observed by Pilots.”

He said that of the 11 aircraft being operated by Air Nigeria, only one, Embraer, is safe to fly Nigeria Air space, with all of the others needing “deep and heavy” technical maintenance.

“This explains why Air Nigeria has never operated more than six Aircraft out of eleven Aircraft. Air Nigeria does not have the money to fix these Aircrafts. Let anybody go and check now, some of the Aircraft and Engines have been grounded for the past one year.”

Mr. Nnorom even advised that “Nigerians who choose to take the risk of flying Air Nigeria not to eat or drink anything, pointing out that passengers have been poisoned because Air Nigeria serves bottled pure water, and that passengers have complained of being served smelling waters.

That also Mr. Ibrahim’s companies, including Air Nigeria; do not have tax clearance certificates.  He listed the others as Global Fleet Oil & Gas, NICON Insurance, Nigeria RE-Insurance, NICON Properties Ltd, Nicon Luxury, Nicon Hotels Okitipupa, VGC & PHC, Newswatch Communications, Newswatch Daily and National Mirror,” Mr. Nnorom said in his petition.

“In Air Nigeria, just to renew expatriate resident permit, Bar Jimoh Ibrahim will instruct a vendor to forge all the tax clearance papers which is filed with the immigration.”

Mr. Nnorom said that Jimoh Ibrahim:  “As the chairman of Air Nigeria, has diverted N5billion From a BOI aviation industry intervention loan Of N35.5billion granted last year by the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria into NICON INVESTMENT LTD; Diverted $18m Out Of $40m Afrixim federal government support of the aviation industry; with $26,969,505.63 diverted into Mr. Ibrahim’s acquisition of Energy Bank of Ghana,” he said.

He also said that: “Jimoh had diverted N10 billion released by the government through the office of the Accountant-General of Nigeria for the payment of pensioners into Nicon Insurance Plc released the sum of, with no pensioner being paid,” he concludes.

Moreover in his petitions he alleged that Mr. Ibrahim is trying to kill him, and attached his letter of resignation and subsequent acknowledgement by the CEO and FOREIGN LEASSORS to the petition.

“On the SFU, recovery of $75,000 from me, I was never arrested, never invited by SFU, did not make any statement, I do not know how money was recovered from me,” he said.  “I am ready to sponsor any person to come with me to SFU and show me my statement,” attributing the matter to Mr. Ibrahim’s “poor character of cheap blackmail.”

According to the former Executive Director, “Jimoh Ibrahim is after my life but if my death will save hundred Nigerian souls from plane crash and that is the will of GOD, my soul will be happy to meet my creator anytime.”

The remnants of the bloody Sunday continue to linger as the community of Eju has begun to cry foul over the deadly plane crash. The aviation minister along with the top boss of the NCAA have held a meeting with the management of DANA Airways to detail out the way forward and to determined the causative factors to the crash.

The management of DANA Airways has told the Aviation Minister and the top boss of the NCAA that their operatives were already at the crash site in search of the blackbox. It is expected for the blackbox to be recovered today.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Eju community have begun compilation of victims and other possible damages. According to eyewitness reports, the community leaders are said to have disagreed with the number of causaties quoted by the media. They stated that the number of casuaties were higher – that the Eju area where the plane landed is densely populated. And so the crash caused extensive damaged – that requires proper collation by the community leaders.

In a related development, expects have faulted the upkeep of the airbus as an official of Dana Airlines who does not want to be named  has just confirmed that the ill-fated Dana Air flight 0992, MC Donnell Douglas (MD 83) was faulty even before it took off from Abuja. She also claimed the flight has very recent history of problems and it was not supposed to have flown.

According to the official, “the plane has had problems that the airlines were aware and should not have flown but the owners insisted that the ill-fated flight must go ahead.

“The same plane had issues in Uyo, Calabar and Abuja over the last few weeks and even experienced issues yesterday morning.” Officials of Dana Air were advised earlier that the plane shouldn’t fly due to some faults noticed in it, but the Indian owners insisted that the air craft should fly.

Also, the Special Adviser, Technical to Minister of Aviation, Mr. Victor Oche Elias, has revealed that the pilot of the ill-fated plane, had alerted the aviation authority of the airport, on the emergency situation 11 nautical miles to landing. It was further disclosed that the pilot’s may-day cry was given priority, but the plane could not make it, as it crashed 4 nautical miles to landing. The MC Donnell Douglas MD 83 was sold to Dana Airline in 2009 by a US-based Alaska Airlines ahead of the airline, commencing its services in Nigeria.

247ureports learnt from one of the engineers  that the Dana Air flight to Abuja from Lagos suffered a serious mishap when one of its engines caught fire while airborne shortly after take-off following a loud slam. The pilot managed to land the aircraft safely after 15 minutes in the air.

Less than five minutes away to land,  a flight 9J-996 Lagos bound flight from Abuja  belonging to Dana Airline with a total of 153 passengers on board crashed into a building in Alagbado area of Lagos state. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) confirmed that there are no survivors.  The plane was said to have crashed at Toyin Bus stop in Lagos. A resident of the area said the aircraft exploded as soon as it crashed, affecting three houses in the area. Officials of the Lagos Fire Service and other rescue workers are said to have arrive the scene and are evacuating victims. The National Emergency Management Agency has confirmed the incident, saying it has mobilised rescue workers to the scene. As gathered by 247ureports rescue operations has been hindered at crash sites, as fire fighters are battling inferno.

It will be recalled that yesterday night, an allied Cargo air plane coming from Lagos to Accra crashed with a bus at Accra at Kotoka international airport, the capital of Ghana killing 10 persons.

Information available to 247ureports.com through a source close to the activities of the Yuguda administration reveals that a bomb exploded at one of the churches [Winners Chapel] located in the suburbs of Bauchi and another church located near the Abubakar Tafawa. According to an eyewitness, the bomb exploded at 10:15am as the church goers settled in for Sunday service.

As gathered, the Church was hit by a car loaded with improvised explosive device [IED]. But the eyewitness accounts differ over the incident.

Some eyewitnesses reported that the driver of the vehicle had driven the vehicle to the church and parked it and then walked into the church. The explosion occurred minutes after the driver walked into the church service. It is uncertain if the driver made it out of the church building before the explosion.

Other eyewitness reports state that it was the handiwork of a suicide bomber who drove in a Honda Saloon laden in IED. The vehicle was rammed into the church.

The explosion was reported to be as massive as the Christmas Day church bombing at Madalla in Suleja, Niger State. Unofficial data puts the death toll at 15 but the police have remained mute over the explosion. The police indicated that he will release a statement soon –once the details of the incident become clearer.

On a puzzling note, the vehicle brand, as 247ureports.com reliably gathered from a government source who stated that it was an American model Chevrolet, – noted that the same model vehicle was recently distributed to top officials of the state civil servants and some political appointees. According to the source inside the Yuguda administration, “the vehicle used in the bombing was one of the vehicles distributed by Yuguda”. It was revealed that the Yuguda administration is presently working tirelessly to identify the owner of the vehicle. The particulars of the vehicle may have been retrieved by the police and the other security agents. This information is yet to be confirmed.

The government of Bauchi State was contacted for comment but they decided to wait for the police to comment first.

The death toll is expected to rise. Sources state that the scene is still being attended to by security officials are presently recovering bodies and the injured.