Naira Marley arriving Abuja on Saturday for his COVID-19 rule breaking concert
Nigerian singer Naira Marley has replied the Executive Jets Services chairman who called him and his team ‘useless people”.
He said he and over 20,000 Marlians who used to fly with Executive Jet will no longer do so.
“We won’t be using ur hungry airline again for calling us useless”, he said .
In a post on Instagram Tuesday, the controversial musician whose real name is Azeez Fashola denied he dropped Works Minister Babatunde Fashola’s name to board the flight to Abuja for a concert.
He said his younger brother, Moshood Babatunde Fashola, shares the same name with former Lagos governor.
Marley wrote:
“Lool they asked for our names on the jet though and looooooooool ur pilot is a Marlian and everybody there is a Marlian too.. my name is Azeez Adeshina Fashola and my lil brothers name is moshood babatunde fashola and u was begging me to tag y’all.
“Do u know that over 20,000 Marlians travel with executive jet a month. We won’t be using ur hungry airline again for calling us useless.
“Thank God we didn’t crash on that flight sha because we nearly did.
BTW We didn’t book the flight ourselves.”
The post included a short video of the concert where an announcer was telling the crowd to go back inside their cars.
Naira Marley bombs airline: I won’t travel in your plane again, we almost crashed
by Kayode Oyero
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.”
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.
Naira Marley further explained that the passenger, Babatunde Fashola, was indeed on the flight, revealing that his younger brother answers the name.
“They asked for our names on the jet. My name is Azeez Adeshina Fashola and my little brother’s name is Moshood Babatunde Fashola,” he said.