Kinfe Kahssaye, the Chief Executive Officer of AirNigeria,
has resigned from the troubled airline.
It was learnt that Mr. Kahssaye finally decided to step down
yesterday after discovering that the airline was unlikely to return to
business.
Air Nigeria has been dogged by huge debts owed to commercial
banks by its owner, Jimoh Ibrahim.
Mr. Ibrahim, a businessman with a reputation for taking over
well-known businesses and then running them aground, has been unable to meet
his airline’s obligations to service providers in Nigeria and around the world.
 |
| *Kahssaye |
A source at the grounded airline told SaharaReporters that
Mr. Ibrahim’s inability to provide funds to get the last two planes in the
airline’s fleet airworthy led to Mr. Kahssaye’s decision to resign his
appointment yesterday.
Mr. Kahssaye recently returned from trips to the US and the
UK. A source disclosed that the overseas trips were a desperate attempt to
revive the comatose AirNigeria. “He found out during the trips that the dream
of saving the airline is a hopeless one,” said our source.
The virtual collapse of the airline adds to the business
woes of its owner, Mr. Ibrahim. The shady businessman is also embroiled in a
public and legal feud with the original directors and founders of Newswatch,
Nigeria’s premier news magazine.
 |
| *Jimoh Ibrahim |
After acquiring controlling stakes in the magazine, Mr.
Ibrahim made a bizarre decision to shut it down. The original founders,
including the magazine’s CEO Ray Ekpu, accused Mr. Ibrahim of fraud, asserting
that he had not paid the agreed sum for his majority stake in the weekly
publication. The Newswatch case is right now in court.
Recently, Mr. Ibrahim unilaterally fired majority of workers
at the airline with due process, the workers in turn embarked on street
protests to push back against the businessman.
SaharaReporters learnt today that Mr. Ibrahim’s workers at
his Abuja NICON Luxury Hotels are gearing up for a protest tomorrow in Abuja
over poor conditions of service and non-payments of wages.
Mr. Kinfe is owed five months of unpaid wages according to
insiders knowledgeable about his resignation.
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