Sola Faleye, personal assistant to the late group chief executive officer of Access Holdings Plc Herbert Wigwe, on Wednesday recounted his last moments with his boss.
Speaking at the night of tributes held at Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos, Mr Faleye said during a flight with his late boss at night from London, UK to Palm Springs, California, US, he walked up to him midair and expressed concern about flying at night in a helicopter.
He said Wigwe told him, “This is America. They have navigation system for flying helicopter at night.”
Faleye said he was supposed to fly in the ill-fated helicopter from Palm Springs to Las Vegas but later decided to accompany their luggage by road since the aircraft had no space left.
He said he got the nod of Wigwe who applauded the idea as a brilliant one.
Wigwe, his wife Chizoba, son Chizi and businessman Abimbola Ogunbajo boarded the helicopter which never made it to its destination.
“Since 2019, I cannot count the flights he took that I wasn’t in it. We were always together,” Faleye said.
“Two and the half hours into my own journey I was a bit sleepy in the car. The chopper went down at 10:08pm (February 9). At exactly 10:09 pm, something just pricked me and I was like ‘They should have landed in my own estimation’.
“I called him, it wasn’t ringing. I called madam’s three numbers they didn’t ring. I called Chizi, I called Mr Bimbo. So I started sweating in the car. I was afraid. I was still on the road going to Vegas.
“I tried to reach Mr Aig. He arrived earlier than us. He was sleeping. I kept calling but couldn’t reach him. I called the driver that was to pick us on landing from the chopper. And he said ’30 minutes ago, he couldn’t see them on the radar anymore.'”
