Chairman of Air Nigeria, Jimoh Ibrahim
By SaharaReporters, New York
“[Ibrahim] did not invest one single kobo in the Airline,” he said in the gripping account which was sent to the Chairman of the Committee on Privatization, on the subject of the businessman’s application to acquire Virgin Nigeria when it was on the verge of a financial crisis.
“What UBA did was to grant him loan amounting to N35.5Billion that is the equal to the amount being owed by old virgin Nigeria Ltd, with three properties whose market values were less than N15Billion. The properties are 159/160 Broad Street, Lagos, Nigeria Re-insurance Corporate Head Office building at Marina Street, Lagos and Nicon Insurance Corporate Head Office building in Abuja. The actual market value of these properties at that time was about N15Billion but Jimoh Ibrahim presented a forged valuation report to UBA worth N75Billion.”
It would be recalled that earlier this month, in another petition reported by SaharaReporters, Mr. Nnorom, who resigned his appointment with Air Nigeria on April 1, warned Nigerians to stop flying the airline until they were sure its planes are fit to fly, accusing Mr. Ibrahim of being uninterested in aircraft maintenance.
In that petition, he traced the financial crisis in Air Nigeria to Mr. Ibrahim’s diversion of the BOI N35.5Billion loan into Mr. Ibrahim’s NICON INVESTMENT LTD, a non-finance company, which had led to air safety being compromised by Air Nigeria.
According to Mr. Nnorom in his petition to the House, following the fraudulent valuation presented by Mr. Ibrahim of three properties in Lagos and Abuja, the loan balance in Virgin Nigeria Ltd account was transferred to Nicon Group of Companies Account with UBA, and a letter was issued to him that Jimoh Ibrahim has paid all the debts of Air Nigeria and the pressmen were invited to publish this deal.
“Few weeks later, UBA, applied for Bank of Industry Loan of same amount being owed by Virgin Nigeria Ltd amounting to N35.5Billion,” the petition said. “Immediately the Bank of Industry Loan was approved, the old debt of Virgin Nigeria Ltd, which Jimoh Ibrahim, claimed has been paid by his Nicon Group of Companies, was debited back to Virgin Nigeria Ltd, account with UBA, while NICON account was credited. With this reversal, the debt of Virgin Nigeria Ltd, which Jimoh Ibrahim claimed that his Nicon Group paid, was return back to Virgin Nigeria Ltd, now called Air Nigeria Development Ltd.”
Once Virgin Nigeria’s account was credited with the BOI loan proceeds a few days later, Mr. Ibrahim withdrew all his forged documents from UBA, the petition said, noting that despite returning all the liabilities of old Virgin Nigeria Ltd to the company, Mr. Ibrahim has in the past two years withdrawn N6Billion from Air Nigeria Development Ltd.
Mr. Nnorom also alleges, among others:
• That Mr. Ibrahim, using various forged documents, has converted his holdings to 100% although his share acquisition is only 51%, telling the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House on Aviation on oath that Richard Brandson still owns 49% of the company shares.
• His personal suffering and “cultural death” in the hands of Mr. Ibrahim and his personal police officers, including CP Tunde Ogunsaken, and that he is being persecuted with various arrest, charges to court, publications in the press that he has been dismissed, and accused of stealing/criminal conversion.
• While the Airline’s fleet grew from two to eleven aircraft, they were all leased to Air Nigeria due to the connection the lessors have with Kinfe, as Mr. Ibrahim “has no international reputation to secure the lease of one Aircraft,” and is a big liability to Air Nigeria.
He reiterated that after Air Nigeria applied for AFRIXIM Loan, another fund provided by the Federal Government to support the aviation industry, Mr. Ibrahim diverted $26,969,505.63 from it to acquire Energy Bank of Ghana.
“This is money laundry and fraudulent misrepresentation of facts to the AFRIXIM, because, the bank will not grant this loan if they are aware that, their money will be diverted into acquisition of a foreign bank,” the former Executive Director said, noting that the implication of the diversion is that funds are unavailable for the proper maintenance of aircraft and safety is thereby compromised.
“This explains why the C-checks are delayed and even basic things needed cannot be provided by Air Nigeria,” he said.
He described Air Nigeria is a “one man business,” and wondered why the federal government would give billions of Naira to a sole trader under the cover of corporate entity as an intervention fund.
“Air Nigeria, has a CEO with National Diploma from Ethiopia called Kinfe Khassaye and a National Executive Director from Kenya with School certificate called Dorac Aketch, when educated Nigerians are not given such appointment,” he said. “Why would Jimoh Ibrahim appoint such people to run an Airline being supported by federal government intervention fund? The answer is simple, Air Nigeria has highly incompetent personnel at Board level.”
Despite that, he said that Air Nigeria holds no Board meetings, as there are only “instructions from the bedroom of Jimoh Ibrahim.”
Noting that he was the longest-serving Executive Director (Finance) in the company’s history, serving for eight months before resigning his appointment, Mr. Nnorom pointed out the anomaly of three Finance Directors in two years in Air Nigeria.
“I am of the view that Executive Directors of Airline should pass through thorough screening like what bank directors go through in CBN screening,” he recommended. “If plane crash must be averted, No Airline should be a one man business again in Nigeria. Airline must be a proper corporate person with many shareholders and defined number of Executive Directors who can say no to the board chairman.”
Drawing attention to the date on which his petition was written: June 4, 2012, Mr. Nnorom noted that Air Nigeria staff was on strike on that day due to none-remittance of tax deducted from their salaries because no staff could obtain a tax clearance certificate. “Again, most expatriates’ salary is paid net of taxes but no amount of tax has ever been remitted to any state board of Internal Revenue,” he said.
It would be recalled that on June 18, Air Nigeria CEO Mr. Kahssaye was arrested by the Federal Inland Revenue Sevices (FIRS) as part of a sweep of tax fraudsters, alleging that Air Nigeria had failed to pay company taxes of about N4.7 billion.
FIRS also said that despite the airline’s tax liabilities, it somehow requested and obtained a Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC), giving it a clean bill of health.
Also last week, on June 20, FIRS filed tax-evasion charges of five years, to the tune of N4.86 billion Naira, and forgery of Tax Clearance Certificates against Air Nigeria.
Mr. Ibrahim and Mr. Kahssaye, and Air Nigeria Development Company Limited were joined in the 10-count charge.
Mr. Nnorom also pointed out how close Nigeria may have come close to two plane crashes in one day, stating that on June 3, the day that a Dana Airline plane crashed in Lagos, a senior engineer on a last-minute inspection found key electrical wires hanging out from an electrical box on an Air Nigeria aircraft that was booked to fly from Lagos to PHC.
“This would have led to mid-air explosion,” he said, tracing the problem to the use of an inadequate number of engineers to certify an aircraft positioned to fly.
“As you are aware, at that time, most distinguished the staffs of Air Nigeria particularly Engineers and Pilots were on strike for non-remittance of their pension and tax contributions to the relevant authority,” he said. “The company Air Nigeria is in deep financial crisis in Nigeria and this explains why the Federal Inland Revenue charged Jimoh Ibrahim and Kinfe Kahassye the CEO to court.”
Mr. Nnorom’s petition to the House is accompanied by several attachments, including:
• Document showing Mr. Ibrahim’s alleged withdrawal of N6billion from Air Nigeria Development Ltd in two years;
• A copy of the transfer instruction concerning Mr. Ibrahim’s alleged diversion of $26,969,505.63 from AFRIXIM loan into the acquisition of Energy Bank of Ghana;
• Internal mail stating that Air Nigeria has no money to dry-clean dirty blankets or provision for new blankets.
• A copy of a petition to the EFCC on 4th April, 2012 warning of Mr. Ibrahim’s excess withdrawal of money from Air Nigeria and “how he has turn the Aircraft to a flying coffin.”
Part of Mr. Nnorom’s final message to the House is as follows: “I appeal for this distinguished house to move a motion for the recovery of Air Nigeria being an abandon Federal Government Investment and the prosecution of Jimoh Ibrahim for fraudulent withdrawal of N6Billion naira from Air Nigeria.”
Air Nigeria, he stressed, belongs to the Federal Government.
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