Access Holdings Plc has said that it lacks specific information on an helicopter crash in the United States reportedly involving its Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Wigwe. It, however said it was collaborating with the US authorities who it said would provide updates on the matter. The firm made its position known in a post tagged “Important announcement” on its official Instagram handle, @myaccessbank. There were reports on Saturday that Wigwe was feared dead when an helicopter conveying him and five others crashed on Friday night near the California-Nevada border in the US. There were also reports that his wife and son were onboard the ill-fated helicopter. Although there has not been official confirmation from Wigwe’s family or firm, prominent Nigerians such as the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki; Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun; and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, among others have issued public statements mourning him. In reacting to the development, however, Access Bank did not mention Wigwe’s name in the message posted on its social media handle. The statement read, “We have received numerous inquiries concerning an airplane crash in the USA. “Presently, we lack specific information; however, we are actively collaborating with US authorities who will furnish updates. “Your understanding and support are valued, and we commit to keeping you informed promptly as we receive updates on the situation.” In confirming the crash earlier, the US Federal Aviation Administration did not disclose the identities of the six people said to be onboard The message on its website read, “A Eurocopter EC 130 helicopter crashed near Nipton, California, around 10 pm local time on Friday, February 9. Six people were on board.” Earlier on Saturday, efforts made to get comments on the development from Access Holdings proved abortive. The Head of Media Relations at Access Holdings, Kunle Aderinokun, and some members of the media team did not take their calls or respond to messages.

  Sunday 11 February 2024 Experts proffer ways to curb violent extremism Access Bank CEO Wigwe, wife, son die in helicopter crash Food crisis: States in anxious wait for FG’s grain allocations Suspected killers threaten, assault journalists in court 400-level KWASU female student takes own life War in Abidjan today: Upbeat Super Eagles vow Elephants will fall Protest Against High Cost Of Living Spreads To Lagos Lead Poisoning: Fear Grips Zamfara Communities As Aid Body Leaves Upscale Fight Against Insecurity, Tinubu Charges Armed Forces Upscale Fight Against Insecurity, Tinubu Charges Armed Forces Police Kill ‘Wanted Notorious Kidnappers’ In Abuja, Destroy Camps Hungarian President Resigns After Child Abuser Pardon Controversy FCT Police Arrest Pastor, Two Others For Alleged Child Trafficking, Rescue 12 Children Customs spot rate deepens Nigerians’ woes, endangers ease of doing business Visit a newspaper stand this morning, buy and read a copy for yourself…

  Herbert Wigwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, waxed philosophical about life about 21 days to his death in the ill-fated chopper crash in California, United States. Wigwe was reportedly on board a chopper with his wife, son and three other passengers when the unfortunate incident happened on Friday. They were reportedly heading for Las Vegas to watch Super Bowl, the annual league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. The New York Times has confirmed the incident but kept the identities of the passengers. However, sources in the banking industry confirmed to Daily Trust that the bank chief was on board the ill-fated aircraft. “A helicopter carrying six people crashed on Friday night near the California-Nevada border, and no survivors have been located as of Saturday morning. “The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashed at around 10 p.m. local time near Nipton, Calif., an unincorporated community about 60 miles south of Las Vegas in eastern San Bernardino County. “It was unclear on Saturday morning where the helicopter departed from and where it was headed. Officials at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department were made aware of the downed aircraft at 10:12 p.m. local time, Mara Rodriguez, a public information officer with the department, said in a statement, adding that the scene of the crash was determined to be east of Interstate 15, near Halloran Springs Road,” New York Times said in its report. Meanwhile, in his post on X on January 19, 2024, the billionaire businessman reflected on life and the need to make the most of it by showing love and kindness. “Today and always, let us remember that life is a precious gift – a chance to breathe, feel, love, experience and connect. “Let’s honour this gift by living with purpose, kindness, and gratitude, making every moment count. Let us number our days,” he wrote.

  Nigerians rounded off the week as they trooped to the street on Saturday to stage a peaceful protest in Lagos over the rising cost of living ravaging the country. The protesters who are said to be market women and men as well as youths carried different kinds of placards to the Ibeju-Lekki area of the state to vent their grievances against the government over the hardship. During the protest in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, the women carried placards with inscriptions such as “Baba Tinubu, Nigerians are hungry”, and ‘Tinubu, come and rescue us”, among others. Over the past few days, some Nigerians have taken to the streets in protest in Kogi, Osun, Niger, and Kano states over the rising cost of living in the country. Since the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023, prices of commodities in the country have been going up. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Itse Sagay has said the sudden manner in which President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, created untold hardship for Nigerians. Sagay, who served as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption under former President Mohammed Buhari made this known in an interview aired on Channels Television on Friday.

  A huge unconfirmed report from the United States indicates that the CEO of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe may have died in a helicopter crash near the California-Nevada border. According to reports, the helicopter crashed on Friday night close to a border city between Nevada and California, killing five other people on board when it was en route to Las Vegas. Unverified sources stated that Wigwe and his wife, Chizoba, and their son were also involved in the mishap.   As of Saturday morning, according to the New York Times, no survivors had been found, according to the officials. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disclosed that a helicopter crashed Friday night near Nipton, California, with six people on board. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that no survivor has been found as of Saturday morning. The FAA identified the aircraft as a Eurocopter EC 130. Herbert Wigwe was an astute banker and top-notch entrepreneur who was born in Ibadan, Oyo State on 15 August 1966. He had a degree in Accountancy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State. He also had an MA in Banking and Finance from the University College of North Wales (now Bangor), and an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London. He was the CEO of Access Holdings Plc, traded as Access Corporation until his death. Herbert was the Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions, after succeeding his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede from January 2014 till April 2022. Wigwe served as the Chairman of Access Bank Ghana Limited, Access Investment & Securities Limited, Central Securities and Clearing System (CSCS), and was the Chairman of Access Bank (UK) Limited. He is a board member of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company and a member of the Advisory Board for Friends Africa. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN – FCA), a Fellow of The Institute of Credit Administration, and an Honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. In 2016, in recognition of “his exemplary role in the society and contributions to youth development”, the Boys’ Brigade (BB), inaugurated Herbert Wigwe, as State Patron for Lagos State Council in 2016. Also, Vanguard and The Sun, foremost Nigeria’s newspapers in 2016 named Wigwe as the Banker of The Year. In 2021, he was also recognised as the African Banker of the Year at the 2021 edition of the African Banker Awards. In October 2022, a Nigerian National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) was conferred on him by President Muhammadu Buhari.

  A 400-level student at Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, identified as Rashidat Shittu, has reportedly committed suicide over her academic status. The Tribune gathered that the deceased committed suicide by drinking “sniper” ahead of the institution’s forthcoming examinations. Sources said that the deceased student was pronounced dead on arrival at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).     It was also learned that she was first rushed to the school clinic before being referred to UITH.   A staff member who was part of the medical team that attended to her at UITH informed me that she was brought in dead. “Her colleagues said she was having issues with her academic status in school. She later informed her colleagues when she started feeling pain that she had drank Sniper. A resident who witnessed her burial (Janazah) at the Muslim cemetery in Osere in the Ilorin metropolis said that the deceased was buried at the facility by family members and staff of the student affairs unit of the KWASU. Speaking on the development, when contacted, the KWASU Director of University Relations, Mrs Saeedat Aliyu, said, “I haven’t been able to reach the officers in charge. I’ll revert as soon as I do.”

  The Nigeria Union of Pensioners says its members will take to the streets naked, if the welfare of pensioners in the country does not improve significantly any time soon. The National President of the union, Godwin Abumusi, told journalists at a news briefing in Abuja on Friday that his union will take the action to draw the attention of the world to the plight of pensioners. “I am going to lead Nigerian pensioners naked,” he said. “I mean, when we are going to protest, we are going to go naked on the street, so that the world will see the pensioners in Nigeria are demonstrating naked. “If they like, they will arrest us and say, ‘Why did you go naked on the streets?’. Delays in the payments of pensions are commonplace in Nigeria and protests by pensioners happen every now and then. For Mr Abumusi, the plight of pensioners is hard to comprehend. “In Nigeria, governments don’t think about the poor people. They only think about themselves. Otherwise, how can a pensioner in Enugu receive as low as N450. How can this be?, he lamented. As the cost of living continues to skyrocket and with organised unions pushing for a new minimum wage for workers, pensioners are also calling for a review of the national minimum pension. Mr Abumusi was clear on what it would take for pensioners to get by with the prevailing economic situation. He said, “We wish to propose the sum of N100,000 as the national minimum pension to the tripartite committee in line with the proposed N200,000 minimum wage by the NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress); as anything short of that will incur the wrath of the pensioners who are hard hit by the prevailing economic hardship.”

  The fight against insecurity in the nation’s seat of power has again yielded results. This time, the nation’s police authorities say some wanted kidnappers have been neutralized and their camps destroyed in Abuja. These recent feats, according to Force Spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, took place on Friday. “In the early hours of February 9, 2024, around 2.40 am, operatives of the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Bureau – Intelligence Response Team (FIB-IRT), acting on intelligence, successfully attacked, neutralized and eliminated many notorious kidnappers including the kidnapping kingpin identified as Musa Wada (Sabo) Magaji, in an operation conducted around Mpape, Abuja,” a Saturday evening statement from him read. “The team also destroyed the camps of the dreaded kidnappers who have been thorns in the flesh of Abuja residents in recent times.” Police operatives engaged the criminals in a 30-minute gun battle, the statement added, with several of the kidnappers “fatally injured, while one of the police operatives sustained bullet wounds”. He said the development comes just on the heels of the “neutralization of Abubakar Wada, an associate of Musa Wada, on February 8, 2024, who served as a lead to their hideout. “Musa Wada, aka Sabo, was the mastermind behind numerous kidnappings for ransom activities plaguing areas including Mpape and Bwari in the FCT; Kagarko in Kaduna; Masaka, and Nukun Village in Nasarawa State. His modus operandi involved identifying wealthy targets and mobilizing armed gangs to carry out abductions for ransom”. While noting that the recent operation was carried out by the FIB-IRT “through a surprise assault,” items recovered from the hideout include mobile phones, multiple SIM cards, charms, and hard drugs”. “Efforts are on to recover additional arms and ammunition and other equipment they use for their nefarious operations,” the police added, reiterating its commitment to bringing perpetrators of “heinous crimes to justice, against all odds”. ‘They Will See Fire For Fire’ This most recent development will be good news to Abuja residents who have been living in fear in the past months owing to the activities of kidnappers and other criminals. Several persons have been abducted while others were killed as insecurity took a worrisome dimension in Nigeria’s political capital. But the nation’s police authorities in the wake of the poor security situation, assured residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of dealing with it. The FCT Minister Nyesom Wike had also vowed to liaise with relevant authorities to make the area uncomfortable for criminals. “I have assured you before that we are going to take this fight against security headlong. Today, you can see that we are not letting them go. I told you all these criminals will run away,” Wike, a former Rivers State governor, added. “We will make sure they don’t sleep again. If they say we will not sleep, they too will not sleep. A child that says the mother will not sleep, will he sleep? So, we are taking the war to them head-on. Let them wait for us, they will see fire for fire.”

  Hungarian President Katalin Novak announced her resignation Saturday following outrage sparked in the central European country by a decision to pardon a man implicated in child sexual abuse case. “I am resigning my post,” said the close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, acknowledging that she had made “a mistake”. “I apologise to those who I hurt and all the victims who may have had the impression that I did not support them. I am, I was and I will remain in favour of protecting children and families,” Novak, 46, said. Novak, a former minister for family policy became the first woman to hold the essentially ceremonial role of president in March 2022. The controversy was sparked by the pardon given last April, amid a visit by Pope Francis to Budapest, to a former deputy director of a children’s home who helped to cover up his boss sexually abusing kids and adolescents there. Since the independent news site 444 revealed the decision last week, the country’s opposition has been calling for Novak’s resignation. Minutes after her announcement, another ally of Orban, Judit Varga, also announced her “withdrawal from public life” for having given her approval for the pardon as justice minister — a post she quit in order to lead a European Parliament election bid. “I renounce my mandate as an MP and the head of the list for the European Parliament,” she said on Facebook. AFP

  The Group Chief Executive Officer, Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has been reported dead. Wigwe was said to have died following a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America. However, it’s not confirmed whether his wife or children were involved. New York Times reports that no survivors have been located as of Saturday morning, the authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashed at around 10 p.m. local time near Nipton, Calif., an unincorporated community about 60 miles south of Las Vegas in eastern San Bernardino County. It was unclear on Saturday morning where the helicopter departed from and where it was headed. Details later…