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EXCLUSIVE: Anti-Social Media Bill Senator, Media Mogul, Dangote's In-law, Footballers And Other Erring Nigerians Who Defied Quarantine Law To Travel Abroad

SaharaReporters has now found that over 160 flights conducted through private jets engaged in the illegality with active connivance with top officials and highly connected businessmen.

More details have emerged of Nigerians, who violated President Muhammadu Buhari's government regulation restricting international flights due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

SaharaReporters has done series of exclusive investigative reports showing how Tinubu's son, Seyi, Alakija's children and other top Nigerian elites including Central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele disobeyed government's regulation placing a ban on international travels at the breakout of the pandemic.

The disregard for the ban on international flights has essentially exposed Nigerians to a wider spread of the disease. 

SaharaReporters has now found that over 160 flights conducted through private jets engaged in the illegality with active connivance with top officials and highly connected businessmen, in one such instance, a former Deputy Majority Leader of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ibn Bala Na'allah has been found guilty of flouting the ban. 

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Senator Ibn Na'allah represented Kebbi South and was the first Senator to sponsor the infamous Anti-Social Media Bill in 2015, titled "Bill for an Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and other Matters Connected therewith" but the Bill did not scale through the National Assembly due to public outcry. 

The Senator left Nigeria for the Santa Maria Airport, Vila do Porto, Portugal, onboard a private jet with registration number: N605DA on May 19, 2020.

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Documents show that Senator Ibn Na'allah jetted off in company with Aliko Dangote's in-law, Bello Suleiman Sani and Gurin Mohammed Sagir in one of the private jets owned by the business mogul and Africa's richest man, Dangote.

Suleiman Sani, a co-traveller in Dangote's private jet is married to Dangote's daughter, Halima in an extravagant wedding ceremony in 2008. 

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He is the son of Colonel Sani Bello, a former military governor of the old Kano State.

In addition, popular media mogul, Nduka Obaigbena, also flew abroad in disregard for the COVID-19 protocols.

Obaigbena is the publisher of a Nigerian daily, ThisDay Newspaper, which also owns Arise TV.

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He travelled to the Stansted Airport, London, in a private jet crewed by Captains Voth Edward, Fensterer Philip and Heilmann Christine on May 26, 2020.

The media mogul boarded with only one passenger, James Barbara Ayimo-Offiong.

A Nigerian, Aguwa Okechukeu, flew from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport to the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, United States of America, in a private jet with registration number; 5NATA on May 23, 202 all by himself as a lone passenger.

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The trip is estimated to have cost him about N28m.

Ngozi Dozie Pascal, son of billionaire Nigerian founder of defunct Diamond Bank, also breached the travel protocol.

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He flew from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport to the LEAL/Alicante Elche General Airport, Spain, on May 23, 2020.

MacLeod Norman James, Feyisetan Adedolapo Oredola, Broch Steven Kalu Chigororom Uzoh, Wallia Singh and Westerdorf Jane were Ngozi's co-passengers in the illegal flight.

Connie Ogundare, a member of the board of directors at STL Trustees, flew from Nigeria to London Luton alongside her twin children on May 24, 2020.

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SaharaReporters can exclusively also confirm that late Emeritus Professor Akinkungbe flew outside the country on May 21, 2020 during the period of the ban on international flights.

Akinkungbe flew to the Munich International Airport, Germany, in company with his son, Olumide Olusegun.

 

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It was gathered that the professor travelled for health reasons before he later died a week after his return to Nigeria.

He practiced medicine for 60 years and was the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin.

Exclusive documents obtained by SaharaReporters show that Nigerian international footballers –  Emmanuel Emenike, Imoh Ezekiel, Victor Osimhen and Paul Onuachu – flew into Nigeria at various times.

Emenike came into Nigeria from London in company with his wife and children, Iheoma, Lotanna and Ifeoma on June 20, 2020. 

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However, Imoh Ezekiel, Victor Osimhen and Paul Onuachu flew from the Paris Airport-Le Bourget, France, on May 25, 2020 in a Hawker 900XP private jet. 

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The entry of the football stars into Nigeria came with great health hazards as there was no record that they were tested upon arrival.

The Chagoury family also embarked on several illegal fights.

The Lebanese Chagoury family is a major profiteer in today's Nigeria. 

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They own the Eko Atlantic City, Eko Hotel and Suites, among other businesses.

They are also a close associate of a two-term governor of Lagos State and All Progressives Congress leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, against whom petitions are lying unattended at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over financial scandals in Lagos.

On May 7, eight members of the Chagoury family including Chagoury Soulaima, Chidiac Dany, Chidiac Kimi, Chidiac Rony, Chidiac Sophie, Chidiac Theodor, Al Chidiac Gia and Al Chidiac Theresa all left Lagos for Beirut, Lebanon.

The Chidaic and Chagoury families are related – Dany Chidiac married Natacha Chagoury and Natacha Chagoury is Soulaima Chagoury's sister.

Natacha boarded a separate private jet from Lagos to Beirut on May 8, 2020.

Ewubare Ronald, former Chief Operating Officer, Joint Ventures and Business Development of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, also flew into Nigeria from London on May 22 through an illegal flight in a private jet with registration number: N171JC. 

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Mr Ewubare recently resigned from the NNPC citing personal reasons.

SaharaReporters had earlier published how the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, flew his family out of Nigeria in a luxury private jet, a Global Express Bombardier 550 luxury jet with registration number N104DA owned by Aliko Dangote on June 1, 2020, in disregard to government regulation. 

 

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After SaharaReporters' story, the CBN governor disclosed to close associates that he will continue to bankroll the protracted trial of Mr Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of SaharaReporters, whose trial has been on false charges and who court dates were mysteriously adjourned for no reason in two separate courts in Abuja.

Draconian and onerous bail conditions placed on him by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja put Sowore in lockdown unable to travel out of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, because of his activism.

To date, neither the Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, nor the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, of President Buhari's office is yet to issue a statement on the erring Nigerian powerful elites, who flouted the travel ban.

 

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