“I went up to him, I said, “sir, I think it’s safer and will be secure for me to just ride and bring the luggage to you”. He said, ‘brilliant idea,’ and I said, ‘safe flight.’”
With the above words, Sola Faleye, the Personal Assistant to the late Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, has disclosed his last conversation with his boss.
He also disclosed how Abimbola Ogunbanjo joined the ill-fated helicopter flight which crashed on February 9 in the United States (U.S.) and killed Wigwe, his wife, son and Ogunbanjo.
Faleye said his decision to accompany their luggage by road made him escape the death.
To him, the decision was based on the need to ensure the security of the luggage which the chopper could not carry.
Faleye spoke on Wednesday while eulogising his boss, Wigwe, at the Night of Tributes held in his honour in Lagos.
He also spoke about his conversation with Ogunbanjo.
His words: “Five of us embarked on that journey. I remember Bimbo (Ogunbanjo) chatted with me and said he wanted to come with us; it was a Tuesday. And I told him my boss’s journey is not always straightforward. Sometimes, you can get in the air and divert somewhere else, and he said he was going to wait.
“I said he was still going to Abuja that day, and maybe he will be leaving later at midnight, and he said he was going to wait.
“I still tried to let him understand that we will be in London Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; he said he will stay in his house and wait.
“We flew from London to Palm Springs. I remember, in the middle of the air, I walked up to him. I said, sir, how comfortable are you flying a chopper at night? I have never done it before. And he said a word, he said, ‘This is America, they have navigation systems for flying a chopper at night,’ and I went back to my seat.”
Faleye added: “As they were loading the luggage, this thought started playing in my mind that, okay, you will fly a chopper, one hour you are there. The next three and a half hours, they are not going to come. Will I go to bed, no. I still have to sit down and wait for these luggage to come. I was like, why not just go with the luggage and get there and deliver it to him and others in the room. Like I said, I always reason in the line of duty. And I went up to him, I said, “sir, I think it’s safer and will be secure for me to just ride and bring the luggage to you”. He said, ‘brilliant idea,’ and I said, ‘safe flight.’”
