Headline

Why Tinubu Should Dissolve Nigeria Air — Air Peace CEO, Onyema

Published

3 years ago

June 17, 2023

… Threatens To Expose Some Things

In what looked like a defence for his actions, the embattled former Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, who has been accused of orchestrating fraud in the unveiling of the country’s national carrier, ruffled some feathers during an interview with Arise TV, last week.

During that interview, Sen. Sirika made some comments which are now being termed false including that the reason Air Peace stopped plying the Dubai route was because it lacked capacity. Sen. Sirika’s allegation immediately attracted a statement from the management of Air Peace, debunking it as false. Also, in a bid to clarify issues more, in a right-of-reply kind of interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, maintained that claims made about his airline operation by Sen. Sirika, were nothing but false, noting that the ex-ministers statements were targeted at destroying the good image of Air Peace.

He went on to describe the former minister’s statements as “very unfortunate”, adding, “It’s very shameful for an ex-minister, somebody who, 20 years ago, was in the House of Representatives, he was a senator, and for the last eight years, he was a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, being paid from my taxpaying, he supervised my ministry, you expected him to be our chief marketer but that hasn’t happened.”

Onyema who stated that he wouldn’t expose a lot of things on national television for the love of the nation, however, decided he must point out certain things.

His words: “The ex-minister of Aviation came out to say indirectly or directly that the Airline he supervised is incompetent, leased two aircraft, paying five hundred thousand dollars monthly for 18 months, incurring 19 million dollars and he was peddling falsehood barefacedly, he never blinked, he was speaking as a matter of fact like that happened.

“Imagine the damage this minister had done to the image and reputation of Air Peace.

“Meanwhile he was peddling pure falsehood. How do we now believe every other thing he said on that day?”

To set the record straight, Onyema explained that “Air Peace doesn’t have two 777s; Air Peace has three and those three were out rightly purchased. Two of those planes are in fact, X Emirates.

“One is X Singapore Airlines with everything you can think of in those planes outrightly purchased by Air Peace.

“Therefore, we never paid rental to anybody, we never incurred…, in the first place, you can’t even use 250,000 to rent a 777; how much do you pay for a single aircraft not to talk of a 777.

“So this is a minister trying to fool the entire nation in his desperate bid to fool everybody to win the nation.

“He was peddling falsehood on Air Peace so, how do we as a nation believe every other thing he was saying out there?

“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority that regulates us is there, you can contact them.

“He was in charge, he signed the import permit. You cannot import any aircraft into the country without the minister of aviation’s approving.

“So he knew quite well that those planes were not leased; they were not rented, they were fully paid for.

“But he told the entire world that we leased those planes just to make us look bad and at the same time, praise Ethiopia, his partners.”

Genesis of the controversies

Onyema further explained that the history of the whole struggle, contrary to what the minister had been saying, was about having a national career. According to him, a national career is a moribund idea worldwide and as such, they knew it was going to “fall and fail like a pack of cards”.

“According to him, most nations have moved away from national carriers due to huge debt portfolios and issues of mismanagement.

“Why should Nigeria in 2023 be going backwards instead of forward? All they needed to do is to strengthen the ease of doing business so that people of means, private concerns of means will come and invest in aviation industry.

“We are not fighting for ourselves. They thought we were afraid of competition. When they wanted to do the national carrier, we made comments but most people stood against it.

“The whole thing was shrouded in secrecy. Our members told Air Peace to apply but when we went to the website we were blocked,” he explained.

The Air Peace CEO further disclosed that he and his team that sued the federal government challenging the launch of Air Nigeria did not withdraw the suit, and the court did not strike it out either, noting that the former minister brought in Ethiopian Airline to make a mockery of the judicial process.

“We went to court, those four suits were meant to demean the local operators in favour of this charade they’ve put up with Ethiopia. Even at some point, ex-president Muhammadu Buhari shot down this National Air project at a time.

“One man just hoodwinked the country into believing that this is needed.

“All they needed to do was to set up a strong light carrier and if you provide enabling environment, more people will invest.

”He told the world that Air Peace was no longer going to Dubai because of low capacity.”

Still miffed with Sen. Sirika’s claims, Onyema said, “Whoever advised senator Hadi Sirika to come on national television, to defend the indefensible has not done him any good.

“The whole world knows we started operations into Dubai July 5, 2019. We never stopped until Covid, when everybody stopped.

“When Covid stopped, we started. UAE decided for whatever reason, to stop the issuance of visas to Nigeria; we stopped going to Dubai, Emirates stopped coming to Nigeria.

“Neither Air Peace nor Emirates is plying this route now. So why should a minister of government barefacedly, come on television to speak falsehood because you want to paint the indigenous operators black and blue.”

Responding to the statement that his airline lacks capacity even after the tremendous role he played in bringing Nigerians in foreign countries home during covid-19 and recently Sudan, Onyema questioned how the ex-minister could have said such.

He recounted that when “The entire world shut down during the lockdown in 2020 because of covid-19, Air Peace went to China on three occasions, bringing back Nigerians; that is a 14, 15 hours non-stop flight, deploying our 777s to bring Nigerians back to their homeland proudly.

“Three times, yet Air Peace doesn’t have capacity? Air Peace also went to India 12 times bringing Nigerians back home.”

He disclosed further that “most Nigerians in India, didn’t have money to pay Ethiopia (air line) to bring them back, I deployed my jets to bring them back.

“Those we brought back later put it in the newspaper to thank us because we brought them back free of charge.”

Onyema also recounted helping to evacuate Nigerians from other countries such as Indonesia, London, South Africa and South Sudan.

“He said after flying into the UK to bring home Nigerians during covid-19, his permit was not renewed for a second trip,” adding that, “I paid for Nigerians, hired a European carrier to bring Nigerians home.

“The Federal Government praised Air Peace for doing that as well as deploying their 777s on two occasions to rescue Nigerians during xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

“Nigeria was respected worldwide for what Air Peace did on their behalf.”

Also recalling his contributions towards helping to fight insecurity in the country, he said, “I have always contributed to the well-being of this country and all I get from some government officials is this kind of thing; they fight you from different angles.”

Why President Tinubu should dissolve Nigeria Air

While calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to dissolve Nigeria Air, Onyema faulted the shareholding arrangement of the airline noting that the leadership of the entire management of the airline is twisted in favour of Ethiopia.

”When you look at this Nigeria Air thing, look at the shareholding, I have it here, the shareholding agreement, without SAHCO, Nigeria would have been in trouble.

“The leadership of the entire management, the DFO, the CEO, all the management positions the headship- Ethiopia, deputies- Nigeria.

“Then, look at the shareholding in Ethiopia 49%.

“There’s a company called Fairfax, who is this Fairfax? It’s another Ethiopian (company), owned by an Ethiopian; they are transaction advisers and they’re going to get 3%.

“They’re going to get 1.45% of the shareholding capital, which is put at 250 million. Ethiopia will bring 122 million but not as cash but as rentals,” he stated.

The Air Peace boss further condemned the shareholding arrangement that favours Ethiopia which he said, is not contributing a penny to the airline adding that “It is only the Nigerian companies that are going to bring money, SAHCO and MRS.

“I have it here, the document is written here. Ethiopia is not bringing a penny into Nigeria. Ethiopia will pay rentals for their own plane, it is written here in black and white, pay for rentals for their own plane for five years. So even if they pay the N122 thousand, Air Peace alone is worth over $2 billion.

“As I speak to you, Boeing is in my office now for the delivery of our 737 Max, which is costing over a billion dollars. Ethiopia is bringing nothing and they’re going to earn 49% of your country’s wealth.”

“I call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately dissolve this charade called Nigeria Air and start his own thing.”

He disclosed that before this charade, what Ethiopian Airline did with the National carrier, the Ethiopian Airline also wanted to do with him, revealing that they approached him for a deal that would earn him royalties and make him swim in millions of Dollars for life with the Ethiopian Airline supplying the planes but he said after considering that other airlines will die, jobs will be lost, etc, that he turned down the deal just for national interest.

VANGUARD

Headline

Woman Passes Out After Receiving 100 Strokes Of Cane

Published

4 days ago

May 24, 2026

Editor

A woman has passed out after she and her partner were each flogged 100 times in public for engaging in sex outside marriage under strict Sharia laws in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, was later carried away after the punishment was carried out in Banda Aceh, located at the northern tip of Sumatra island on Thursday.

A masked official dressed in brown robes administered the caning before members of the public who gathered to witness the punishment.

Her partner was also seen wincing in pain while receiving the lashes.

The pair were among several individuals punished for violating Sharia regulations in the province.

Authorities from the Banda Aceh Sharia Court and the Prosecutor’s Office handed down punishments ranging from 25 to 100 lashes for offences including extramarital sex allegedly arranged through online applications.

Aceh remains the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia operating under Sharia law, where unmarried couples are prohibited from having sexual relations.

Caning is commonly used in the province as punishment for offences such as gambling, alcohol consumption, same-sex relations and sex outside marriage.

Under Aceh’s Sharia regulations, child rape offenders face some of the harshest penalties, including up to 200 strokes of the cane, a prison sentence of as long as 200 months or fines equivalent to two kilograms of gold.

The punishments are usually carried out publicly as a way of shaming offenders in addition to inflicting physical pain.

Such canings are often conducted outside mosques or in open public spaces, with residents watching and taking photographs during the exercise.

Human rights organisations have continued to condemn the practice, arguing that it causes emotional trauma and violates international human rights standards.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticised the punishments, saying they conflict with Indonesia’s constitution and global legal obligations.

Amnesty said in a statement: “Caning contravenes Indonesia’s constitution and is in clear violation of international human rights law and standards.

‘It constitutes a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and can amount to torture in violation of the UN Convention against Torture and other international covenants, to which Indonesia is a State Party.’”

Despite the criticism, local authorities have defended the punishments as part of Aceh’s religious and cultural identity, insisting they serve as a deterrent against immoral behaviour.

Earlier in January, another couple in the province reportedly received 140 lashes each after being found guilty of drinking alcohol and engaging in sex outside marriage.

(Daily Mail)

Headline

Senegal’s President Sacks Prime Minister After Months-long Feud

Published

4 days ago

May 24, 2026

Editor

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government following months of rising political tension between the two former allies.

The decision was announced in a surprise decree read on national television by a presidential aide, stating that Faye had “ended the duties” of Sonko and “consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government”.

Sonko, who remains a highly influential figure among Senegal’s youth, responded on social media, saying he would “sleep with a light heart”.

The political fallout comes at a time of growing economic strain in the country, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) putting Senegal’s public debt at 132% of its GDP.

His removal followed a tense parliamentary session on Tuesday, where Sonko openly criticised President Faye’s handling of the debt situation.

The development is striking given that Faye’s rise to power was largely tied to Sonko’s popularity and political backing.

Sonko would almost certainly have contested the presidency himself in 2024, but was barred from the race due to a defamation conviction. Instead, he threw his support behind Faye, rallying voters with the slogan “Diomaye is Sonko, Sonko is Diomaye”.

The alliance helped unseat former President Macky Sall in a dramatic electoral victory, despite both men having been released from prison only days before the vote.

Tensions between the two leaders had been building for months, with Faye reportedly accusing Sonko of excessive dominance within the ruling Pastef party, while Sonko accused the president of weak leadership and failing to defend him against critics.

(BBC News)

Headline

Six Nigerians Arrested In Thailand Over AI-Powered Romance Scam

Published

4 days ago

May 24, 2026

Editor

Six Nigerian nationals have been arrested by the Thailand Police Force for allegedly operating an AI-powered deepfake romance scam syndicate from a luxury condominium along the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi Province, following a cocaine trafficking investigation that exposed their activities.

Thai authorities said the operation began after police arrested a Nigerian suspect identified as Patrick and three associates in April over alleged drug trafficking offences. During the raid, officers reportedly seized assets valued at about 2.5 million baht.

Investigators said financial transactions linked to the suspects led them to several foreign nationals living in a high-end riverside condominium near Phra Nangklao Bridge in Nonthaburi. Police discovered that many of the occupants were staying in groups of five or six per apartment under student visas despite not being enrolled in any educational institution or engaged in lawful employment.

According to Thai police, officers executed search warrants on three condominium units on May 22. The suspects allegedly refused to open their doors, forcing authorities to break into the apartments.

Videos circulating on X captured the moment police officers forcefully gained entry into one of the apartments before arresting the suspects.

During the operation, one suspect reportedly attempted to escape by climbing over a balcony, while another was found hiding on the bathroom floor while allegedly sending warning messages to occupants in neighbouring units.

Police recovered 18 mobile phones, three laptop computers and three bank passbooks from the apartments. Authorities said some of the phones were still logged into active conversations with victims at the time of the raid.

Investigators alleged that the syndicate specialised in romance scams targeting older Thai women by using AI-generated faces and manipulated video calls to create fake online identities.

The suspects allegedly posed as pilots, United States military officers, doctors and engineers to gain the trust of victims before requesting money under false pretences.

Police said the fraudsters typically claimed that valuable packages or gifts sent to victims had been withheld by customs officials and required payment of clearance fees before release.

Authorities also said they recovered scripts for sexually explicit conversations allegedly used to emotionally manipulate victims into transferring funds. Investigators claimed the group relied heavily on artificial intelligence technology to generate realistic Western faces for fake video interactions.

Thai police said all six suspects are currently facing preliminary charges bordering on illegal association and immigration overstay, while additional fraud and romance scam charges are expected to follow as investigations continue.