“Five of us embarked
on that journey. I remember Mr. Bimbo chatted me and said he wants to come with
us, it was a Tuesday. And I told him my boss’ journey is not always
straightforward. Sometimes, you can get in the air and divert somewhere else,
and he said he was going to wait,” the PA to the late business mogul said.
“I said he was still going to Abuja that day, and maybe he’ll
be leaving later in the 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. I really don’t know why I was trying to convince him not to, I don’t
know, and we all went on the journey.”
Faleye added that the group flew from London to Palm
Springs, relieved that their trip was about to end.
However, the PA said he was skeptical about them continuing
their trip by midnight, so he tried to implore Wigwe to have a rethink.
“I remember, in the middle of the air, I walked up to him. I
said sir, how comfortable are you flying chopper at night? I’ve never done it
before. And he said a word, he said, ‘This is America, they have navigation
systems for flying chopper at night’ and I went back to my seat,” Faleye said.
He recounted that after arriving Palm Springs, there were
two vehicles waiting for them — one to accompany them to the chopper and the
other to transport their luggage, which could not fit in the chopper, by road.
Faleye said he decided to leave with the vehicle that had
the luggage, after weighing the options of leaving the bags unattended to, or
flying in luxury with his boss.
“Brilliant idea,” Wigwe told him.
Faleye said he wished his boss a safe trip and that was the
last conversation they had.
He said he knew something was wrong when hours into his road
trip, he put a phone call across to Wigwe and his wife.
“Two and half hours into my own journey… I was a bit sleepy
in the car. So, at exactly 10:09, mind you, the chopper went down at 10:08.
Something just pricked me and I picked up my phone. In my own estimation, they
should have landed,” he said.
“I called him (Wigwe), it wasn’t ringing. I called madam…
she has three numbers… I called all three. I called Chizzy (Wigwe’s son). I
called Mr. Bimbo.”
Hours later, all six persons aboard the chopper were
confirmed dead after it went down.
