Nigerian singer, songwriter and rapper Babatunde Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley has escalated his beef with a Nigerian Private jet company.
The rapper and Nigeria’s Executive Private Jet services (Execujets) have been involved in a heated argument since the company’s CEO referred to the rapper as useless.
The private jet company recently ferried the rapper from Lagos to Abuja for a drive-by concert that caused uproar on social media for defying the Covid-19 guidelines.
The saga surrounding Marley’s trip to Abuja started after a video of him entertaining a crowd at the Jabi Lake Mall on Saturday, June 13 surfaced online.
Nigerians immediately questioned how the rapper was able to fly to Abuja when interstate travel has been prohibited, save for goods and essential travel.
The uproar prompted Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, to call out ExecuJets Services CEO, Sam Iwuajoku, and his company saying they erred in airlifting the rapper to Abuja.
The Private jet company’s license has since been suspended.
“We approved a flight indeed, but not for any musician. Approved flight was to convey a Justice on official assignment, but Executive Jet illegally used it to convey a musician to Abuja for a concert, The operation is a clear violation of our approvals which we take seriously. It seems this is becoming a norm as it’s the second time. ExecuJet services are hereby suspended indefinitely and we’ll also fine them maximally according to the law” said the Aviation Minister
The Company’s CEO came out to reveal that the company mistook the singer to be the Nigerian minister for housing who also goes by the name Babatunde Fashola.
“The flight was to carry a Judge to Abuja on Sunday 14th, 2020 as requested and a permit was granted based on the application, but unfortunately when I called the Judge on Saturday morning to inform him that we have the permit, he then said that he has reached Abuja already with a different flight, that someone gave him a lift to Abuja. On Saturday morning 13th June 2020, my staff called me that they have a charter flight to Abuja and that the passengers are already in the lounge. As a rule, passenger manifest is always sent to me before any departure. When I went through the manifest and I saw Fashola Babatunde I thought it was the Honorable Minister of Works going to Abuja with his men, so we decided to do the flight since it is a serving Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I didn’t know it was a bunch of useless people. We are very sorry for this mistake and we promise that this will not happen again.” Read Iwuajoku’s statement
Following the company’s reply, the rapper came out to rubbish the claims while also threatening to lead a boycott against the company.
“Do you know that over 20,000 Marlians travel by Executive Jet a month? We won’t be using ur useless airline again for calling us useless. Thank God we didn’t crash on that flight sha because we nearly did. BTW We didn’t book the flight ourselves, Lool they asked for our names on the jet though and looooooooool ur pilot is a Marlian and everybody there is a Marlian too.. my name is Azeez Adeshina Fashola and my lil brother’s name is Moshood Babatunde Fashola. And u was begging me to tag y’all” he said
